Garza v. United States

881 F. Supp. 1099, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12659, 1995 WL 139314
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedJanuary 19, 1995
DocketCiv. A. No. L-93-17
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 881 F. Supp. 1099 (Garza v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garza v. United States, 881 F. Supp. 1099, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12659, 1995 WL 139314 (S.D. Tex. 1995).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

KAZEN, District Judge.

Pending is Defendants’ motion for summary judgment. Plaintiffs assert a. Bivens claim against two Border Patrol agents, De Leon and Rangel, and also sue the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The case arises out of an incident occurring on March 6, 1992, when the Plaintiffs, then students at Texas A & I University in Kings-ville, were stopped on a highway and briefly detained during an investigation of suspected criminal activity. The Bivens claims are that Plaintiffs were detained and searched illegally and that they were denied equal protection of the laws by being “singled out” on the basis of “their Hispanic descent.” They also allege torts of negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, negligence, false arrest, and false imprisonment.

Bivens Claims

The Court must first determine whether Plaintiffs have asserted violation of a constitutional right of any kind and then decide the issue of qualified immunity. The immunity defense provides a strong shield against constitutional claims asserted under Bivens, and thus a heavy burden for Plaintiffs to overcome. The doctrine protects “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.” Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1096, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986). The Court must evaluate the objective reasonableness of the Defendants’ actions assessed in the light of “clearly established” legal rules existing at the time. Johnston v. City of Houston, 14 F.3d 1056, 1059 (5th Cir.1994) (citing White v. Taylor, 959 F.2d 539, 544 (5th Cir.1992)). So long as reasonable public officials could differ on the lawfulness of the Defendants’ actions, the Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. Id.

The Stop and Detention. Plaintiffs claim there was no basis for the agents to stop them. Even if there was, Plaintiffs contend that the Fourth Amendment was nevertheless violated because, after the stop, the agents exceeded the reasonable scope of the detention. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19-20, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).

A roving Border Patrol may stop a traveling vehicle near the international border if the agents can point to specific and articulable facts which, together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant suspicion that the vehicle is engaged in illegal activity. United States v. Lopez, 911 F.2d 1006, 1009 (5th Cir.1990). In assessing reasonable suspicion, a court must examine [1101]*1101the totality of the circumstances, including the collective knowledge of all the officers. Id. Factors that can be properly considered include characteristics of the area, proximity to the border, traffic patterns, the agents’ previous experience, the suspect’s type of vehicle, and the driver’s behavior. The circumstances need not convict the suspects beyond a reasonable doubt; indeed a brief investigatory stop does not even require probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed. Also, the issue is not what are later determined to be the true facts, nor Plaintiffs’ explanations for why they believed their conduct was justified. The issue is how did the totality of circumstances appear to the agents and, based on those circumstances, were their resulting suspicions reasonable. Considering those circumstances which are not in dispute — including the location, type of vehicle, Agent Flores’ experience, and Plaintiffs erratic driving — the Court concludes that the agents had reason for a brief investigatory stop. Moreover, they would at least have had a reasonable, good-faith belief that the stop was justified. See United States v. Ramirez-Lujan, 976 F.2d 930, 933 (5th Cir.1992) (outlining factors to be weighed in reasonable suspicion test), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 1587, 123 L.Ed.2d 153 (1993).

The Detention. Plaintiffs contend that the facts occurring after the stop converted an investigatory detention into a “de facto arrest.” The facts indicate that Agent Flores, believing the Plaintiffs were trying to elude him, radioed for assistance. His communication somehow was understood by Ran-gel and De Leon to mean that Plaintiffs’ vehicle had refused to yield to Flores. This conclusion was untrue since Flores had never actually used his lights or siren to command a stop. Unquestionably, Plaintiffs’ vehicle eventually stopped in response to Border Patrol units stationed ahead. Although the parties debate whether this was a “blockade,” the Court finds that characterization to be of little relevance. It is undisputed that the agents used what the Government terms “felony stop tactics.” Standing behind the doors of their vehicles, they drew weapons and ordered the Plaintiffs to throw their car keys out the window, put their hands on their heads, and get out of the car. Plaintiffs were then instructed to get on their knees during a patdown search. Plaintiffs suggest that the agents “worked themselves into an overly-excited state,” partly because of the mis-communication. However, the Fifth Circuit has held in a similar fact situation that erroneous information transmitted among agents, even if resulting from negligence, does not affect the agents’ good-faith reliance on the misinformation. United States v. DeLeon-Reyna, 930 F.2d 396 (5th Cir.1991) (en banc).

The question then becomes whether the conduct of the agents was reasonable based on the circumstances as they understood them to be. Prevailing law indicates that it was. For example in United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985), the Court found that a proper investigatory stop was not a de facto arrest when the officer approached with gun drawn, ordered the driver to assume a “spread eagled” position against the side of the truck, and patted him down. In United States v. Sanders, 994 F.2d 200 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 114 S.Ct. 608, 126 L.Ed.2d 572 (1993), the Fifth Circuit reviewed decisions upholding a proper investigatory stop rather than de facto arrest when an officer approached with gun drawn and pointed it at occupants of a vehicle that had just led police on a high speed chase; when officers blockaded the path of an airplane suspected of involvement in drug smuggling and approached it with drawn weapons; and when officers blocked the path of a suspect’s car with their own car and exited with guns drawn. Id. at 204-05. The Sanders court held that pointing a weapon at a suspect, ordering him to lie on the ground, and handcuffing him, does not automatically convert an investigatory detention into an arrest. Id. at 206. “The relevant inquiry is always one of reasonableness under the circumstances.” Id.

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881 F. Supp. 1099, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12659, 1995 WL 139314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garza-v-united-states-txsd-1995.