US v. Tingling, 86-00262-01/02-CR-W-8.
| Decision Date | 27 March 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-00262-01/02-CR-W-8.,86-00262-01/02-CR-W-8. |
| Citation | 656 F. Supp. 635 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Marva TINGLING a/k/a Jacinth Miles and Beverly A. Drummond, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri |
Linda L. Sybrant, Asst. U.S. Atty., Kansas City, for plaintiff.
Bruce W. Simon, Kansas City, for defendants.
The court has before it the Report and Recommendation of the Honorable Calvin K. Hamilton, Chief United States Magistrate, filed January 28, 1987, in which Judge Hamilton reluctantly recommends that this court enter an order granting defendants' joint motion to suppress physical evidence and statements, if any, made by them. Having reviewed the record and the applicable law, the court finds that the arrests in this case were supported by probable cause, and that therefore defendants' joint motion to suppress should be denied.
The court adopts the Chief Magistrate's proposed findings of fact relevant to the present motion, which are reproduced in an appendix to this order. Those facts can be summarized as follows.
1. For about a month prior to the arrests herein, Detective Robert Starbuck had been assigned part-time to what may be called a narcotics interdiction detail at Kansas City International Airport. Starbuck's supervisor had learned through informants that the late-night Eastern Airlines flight into Kansas City from Miami had become particularly popular with cocaine traffickers. In addition, Drug Enforcement Agency officials assigned to monitor the airplane during its layover stop in St. Louis had reported to Starbuck's superiors a high level of drug-related seizures on that leg of the flight.
2. Informants had also told Starbuck's superiors that the preferred method of smuggling on this late-night Eastern flight was to conceal large quantities of cocaine on the courier's person. According to informants, the couriers on the late-night Eastern flights were often black women of Jamaican descent. Further, in the several weeks prior to the arrests herein, the Kansas City authorities had observed Jamaicans known to be involved in cocaine trafficking picking up passengers from these Eastern flights.
3. At about 9:40 p.m. on December 2, 1986, Starbuck took up surveillance of Eastern flight 222, scheduled to arrive at 10:15 p.m. at gate 6A from Miami, via St. Louis. At about 10:00 p.m. he noticed a new 1987 white turbo Mazda parked near gate 10. Two black men got out of the car, entered the terminal, and checked the arrival-time monitors. Shortly thereafter, Starbuck noticed that the same car was parked right outside gate 6A. His curiosity evidently piqued, Starbuck exited the gate area, walked past the Mazda, and observed the two men slumped down or lying down in the front seat of the car in such a fashion that they could not be seen by casual passers-by.
4. Starbuck resumed his surveillance position inside the terminal near gate 6A. Flight 222 arrived late at 10:40 p.m. While Starbuck was waiting for the passengers to deplane, one of the men who had been seated in the Mazda entered the terminal and took up a position a few feet to Starbuck's left, such that both he and Starbuck were standing directly in front of the gate as the passengers disembarked. Starbuck noticed that this individual would from time to time glance over in Starbuck's direction, but that when Starbuck returned the glance, he would turn away.
5. Although he couldn't remember this individual's name, Starbuck recognized him as someone with whom he had had contact in the past in the context of at least one if not several drug investigations. He was later identified through fingerprints as Carl Stroud, although he identified himself as James Anderson.
6. Defendants disembarked the plane separately and exited the terminal separately. From all initial appearances, it seemed as though defendants were strangers to one another and to Stroud — they left the gate area without acknowledging one another or Stroud — yet as soon as defendants had exited the terminal, Stroud followed them out and they all headed for the Mazda.
7. Starbuck observed defendant Tingling getting into the back seat of the Mazda and observed defendant Drummond placing her luggage in the trunk, assisted by the driver (who was later identified as Lloyd Archer, a Jamaican). At this juncture, Stroud was walking toward the car and as he observed Starbuck drawing closer, he hesitated and backed away momentarily. Starbuck then approached the car, identified himself to defendant Drummond, and inquired whether he might speak with her.
8. Though it appears that defendant Drummond was quite agreeable throughout the ensuing colloquy, she lied repeatedly about her identity and citizenship. She claimed she had come to Kansas City to visit a friend (pointing to Archer) but she could not name Archer, nor did she know his address or telephone number. It developed that Drummond was a Jamaican citizen travelling on a one-way ticket paid for in cash and issued under a false name.
9. Defendant Drummond gave Starbuck verbal and written permission to search her luggage and purse. Though the search revealed no contraband, Starbuck found it odd that none of the luggage bore identification tags.
10. Starbuck then made similar inquiry of defendant Tingling. She too lied about her identity, and was travelling on a one-way ticket paid for in cash and issued under a false name. She consented to a search of her baggage; the search revealed no contraband. None of her baggage bore identification tags. She could, however, identify Archer by name.
11. Archer informed Starbuck that he was a Jamaican national who had been in the United States since 1981. He told Starbuck that he had just left a house at Peery and Bellefontaine, where someone named John (whose true name Archer thought was Mike Campbell) had instructed him to pick up two women at the airport. Archer further stated that Stroud had been at the house and had accompanied him from the house to the airport.
12. Starbuck recognized the place described by Archer as one which had been the subject of a prior drug investigation, and which was known to be the residence of numerous Jamaican nationals involved in cocaine activity.
13. Starbuck attempted to make inquiry of Stroud, but he chose not to cooperate.
14. Archer gave Starbuck oral permission to search the Mazda. The search revealed a loaded handgun and ammunition beneath the driver's seat.
15. Starbuck then advised Archer and Stroud that he was placing them under arrest for carrying a concealed weapon. He advised defendants that he was placing them under arrest for giving false information to a police officer. Defendants were informed of their Miranda rights.
16. During the course of the booking procedure at the police station, the female officer who searched defendant Tingling discovered two packets of cocaine in her undergarments. Defendant Drummond then admitted that she too was carrying cocaine; a search revealed three packets hidden in similar places. Defendant Tingling stated that she had been given the contraband by unknown persons in Miami, with instructions to transport it to Kansas City, where unknown persons would pick her up at the airport.
The question before the court is whether, on this record, Detective Starbuck had probable cause to believe defendants were violating narcotics laws when he placed them under arrest.
The Constitution permits an officer to arrest a suspect without a warrant if there is probable cause to believe that the suspect has committed or is committing an offense. Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 36, 99 S.Ct. 2627, 2631, 61 L.Ed.2d 343 (1979) (citations omitted). "Probable cause" means those facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge that are sufficient to warrant a prudent person, or one of reasonable caution, in believing, in the circumstances shown, that the suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit an offense. Id. at 37, 99 S.Ct. at 2632 (citations omitted).
The Supreme Court has recently emphasized that probable cause is a "practical, nontechnical conception." Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (quoting Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1311, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949)). The probable cause standard does not deal with hard certainties, but rather, as the term itself implies, with probabilities. "Long before the law of probabilities was articulated as such, practical people formulated certain common sense conclusions about human behavior; jurors as factfinders are permitted to do the same — and so are law enforcement officers." Id. at 231-32, 103 S.Ct. at 2328-29 (quoting United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 418, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981)) (emphasis added). Probable cause requires only a probability or substantial chance of criminal activity, not an actual showing of such activity. Id. at 243 n. 13, 103 S.Ct. at 2335 n. 13. In making a determination of probable cause the relevant inquiry is not whether particular conduct is "innocent" or "guilty," but the degree of suspicion that attaches to particular types of noncriminal acts. Id. See also United States v. Glasser, 750 F.2d 1197, 1205-06 (3d Cir.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1018, 105 S.Ct. 2025, 85 L.Ed.2d 306 and 471 U.S. 1068, 105 S.Ct. 2148, 85 L.Ed.2d 504 (1985) ().
The pivotal question in this case, in the court's view, is whether the information Detective Starbuck gathered during his airport surveillance and upon stopping and questioning defendants and their two male companions escalated the factual basis from one permitting an investigatory stop to one warranting an arrest.1 See United States v. Martin, 706 F.2d 263, 265 (8th Cir.1983). In the court's view, no one item of the...
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U.S. v. Archer
...found on their persons. Fourth amendment violations were asserted. Two judges of the district court denied the motions to suppress, 656 F.Supp. 635. 1 Preserving their right to appeal the district court's rulings, Archer pleaded guilty to the charge against him and Drummond and Tingling ple......
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State v. Page
...that Defendant had committed a drug-related offense. A case finding probable cause on facts similar to those here is United States v. Tingling, 656 F.Supp. 635 (W.D.Mo.1987), aff'd, 840 F.2d 567 (8th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 941, 109 S.Ct. 364, 102 L.Ed.2d 354 (1988) (officer had p......