Groves v. State

199 A.3d 239, 239 Md. App. 697
Court of Special Appeals of Maryland·Decided December 21, 2018·No. No. 2146, September Term, 2017·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Moylan, J.

*698Our primary focus on this appeal is on the protective sweep as an incident of lawful arrest. The appeal is a primer of Fourth Amendment law because of the plenitude of issues it raises. On December 14, 2017, the appellant, Curtis Groves, entered conditional guilty pleas to 1) the possession of heroin with intent to distribute and 2) the possession of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime before Judge Mark K. Boyer in the Circuit Court for Washington County. On the two convictions, the appellant was sentenced to an aggregate term of 32 years of incarceration with all but 26 years suspended. The guilty pleas were conditioned upon the appellant's reserving his right to appeal from an adverse ruling at a pre-trial suppression hearing. Maryland Rule of Procedure 4-242(d)(2).

*240Our chronology in this case looks backward from that point.

The Suppression Hearing

Looking backward to the suppression hearing, the appellant moved pre-trial to suppress various contraband and instrumentalities of crime (to wit, drugs, a quantity of ammunition, and a handgun) seized by the police during a warranted search on January 25, 2017, of 43 Charles Street in Hagerstown, a residence shared by the appellant with his girlfriend, Sidrease *699Morgan. A hearing was conducted on the motion on November 29, 2017, before Judge Boyer. In an order of December 8, 2017, Judge Boyer denied the motion to suppress.

The key issue before the suppression hearing was the constitutionality of the search and seizure warrant for 43 Charles Street issued by Judge Daniel Dwyer on January 25, 2017. There was no question but that the detailed, eight-page warrant application submitted by Agent Tammy Jurado of the Washington County Narcotics Task Force facially furnished abundant probable cause for the issuance of the warrant. The nub of the appellant's contention, however, was that the police had made an earlier entry into 43 Charles Street on that very day, to wit, when they first arrested the appellant, and had at that time made a number of visual observations which, in turn, became the essential core of the warrant application. The warrant application recited:

In the process of arresting Groves, Corporal Will Blount of the Prince George's County Police Department and assigned to the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, observed to the right of the basement stairs a long box. Between the box and the basement wall he observed a brick shaped item lying on the dirt floor, which was wrapped in a layer of white paper and then in clear plastic.
The brick shaped item appeared pliable, and based on Agent Jurado's knowledge, training and experience as a police officer, large amounts of controlled dangerous substances are often packaged in a similar manner for concealment, and prior to being broken down into smaller amounts for the purpose of distribution or dispensing.
Deputy Chris Carson, also assigned to the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, observed in the basement an artificial Christmas tree box. Deputy Carson observed what is consistent with the black grip of a firearm protruding from the box. Deputy Carson also told Agent Jurado the basement wall is brick and one of the bricks had been removed and/or was missing. In the space where the brick should have been Deputy Carson observed a box of ammunition.
*700Deputy Carson further advised that while clearing the residence to ensure there was no one else inside, he observed lying on the bedroom floor of a second floor bedroom what appeared to be a black semi-automatic handgun. This black semi-automatic handgun was lying next to the bed.

(Emphasis supplied).

The appellant's argument is that the unreasonable extent and duration of that earlier intrusion in the course of which the police made those observations violated the Fourth Amendment. The argument followed that if those unconstitutional observations, as fruit of the poisonous tree, were excised from the warrant application, what then remained would not have been enough to justify the issuance of the warrant. With respect to that conditional quantitative assessment, the appellant is on solid ground. With respect to the constitutionality of the initial intrusion, however, *241we must look backward to the facts of that earlier event.

The Protective Sweep Incident To Arrest: A Homegrown Product

A. A National Phenomenon With A Local Provenance

Before turning to the application of protective sweep law to the specific facts of this case, however, it behooves us to examine protective sweep law in the abstract. It also is gratifying to remember that this now universally recognized constitutional principle grew from strong native roots. It was the 1987 opinion of Judge Theodore Bloom for the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland that found expression in the Supreme Court's first recognition of the protective sweep phenomenon in terms essentially indistinguishable from those first enunciated by Judge Bloom.

In Buie v. State, 72 Md. App. 562, 531 A.2d 1290 (1987), seven officers went to Buie's home in Prince George's County with an arrest warrant and arrested him for armed robbery. One officer called down basement stairs for everyone in the basement to come up with hands raised. After some discernible delay, Buie came up and was immediately arrested, handcuffed, *701and searched. As Buie was being led from the house, another officer went down into the basement "in case there was someone around." Id. at 566, 531 A.2d 1290.

B. The Protective Sweep As A "Prior Valid Intrusion"

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Groves v. State, 199 A.3d 239, 239 Md. App. 697 (Md. Ct. App. 2018).

199 A.3d 239 (Groves v. State) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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