Ray v. State

76 A.3d 1143, 435 Md. 1, 2013 WL 5382208, 2013 Md. LEXIS 606
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedSeptember 27, 2013
DocketNo. 80
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 76 A.3d 1143 (Ray v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ray v. State, 76 A.3d 1143, 435 Md. 1, 2013 WL 5382208, 2013 Md. LEXIS 606 (Md. 2013).

Opinions

BARBERA, C.J.

We granted certiorari in this case intending to address the nature of probable cause, as that phrase is employed in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, and to resolve what appeared to be the interesting question of whether, under the particular circumstances of this case, there existed the requisite probable cause to arrest Petitioner Bashawn Montgomery Ray. This legal matter is important to Petitioner because he links the denial of his motion to suppress evidence to his claim that the evidence, used against him at his subsequent criminal trial, was the unlawfully obtained fruit of his illegal arrest.

[4]*4Petitioner advanced this Fourth Amendment claim before the Court of Special Appeals, which, over the State’s strenuous argument to the contrary, concluded that the claim was properly before that Court for review. Petitioner enjoyed only a Pyrrhic victory, however, because the Court of Special Appeals held that the claim failed on its merits. Petitioner seeks from us a second look at the same Fourth Amendment claim, and the State resurrects the argument that the claim is not properly before the appellate courts.

We agree with the State that Petitioner’s claim is not properly before the appellate courts. Petitioner waived the claim by not raising it before the Circuit Court, as required by Maryland Rule 4-252, and the record otherwise does not support the conclusion reached by the Court of Special Appeals that the claim is capable of appellate review by operation of Maryland Rule 8-131(a). In the following pages we explain why that is so.

I.

We begin with the historical and procedural facts that form the basis of the present appeal. The incident leading to Petitioner’s arrest began when the police initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle traveling on Interstate 270. Petitioner was one of three occupants, in addition to the driver. As events unfolded, one of the officers on the scene asked the occupants to exit the vehicle. The officer obtained consent from a female passenger to look inside her wallet for identification. Instead of identification, the officer discovered multiple fake credit cards. At some unspecified point thereafter, all the occupants of the vehicle, including Petitioner, were arrested. Petitioner was charged with conspiracy to commit theft, making a false statement to the police while under arrest, and related offenses.

Before trial, Petitioner filed an “Omnibus Motion” pursuant to Maryland Rule 4-252.1 The motion included boilerplate [5]*5language requesting suppression of all unlawfully obtained evidence. Relevant here, the motion alleged:

That articles of evidence taken from the Defendant by police authorities were obtained as the result of an illegal search and seizure in violation of the Defendant’s constitutional rights.
WHEREFORE, the Defendant respectfully prays that this Honorable Court suppress all evidence obtained by police authorities as the result of an illegal search and seizure.

On the day before the scheduled hearing on the motion to suppress, Petitioner filed a “Supplement to Omnibus Motion to Suppress Evidence,” requesting suppression of “all evidence obtained as a result of an illegal traffic stop and illegal detention and search on or about October 5, 2010.” The supplement set forth the following allegations:

1. That on October 5, 2010, the Defendant was a passenger in a black Ford Expedition that was traveling northbound on Interstate 270. The vehicle was stopped by the Montgomery County Police at approximately 1:00 p.m. for having blue headlights and for having air fresheners hanging from the rear view mirror.
2. That the Police Officers had no reasonable articulable suspicion that a traffic violation had occurred and therefore no legal basis to stop the vehicle. Whren v. [United States], 517 U.S. 806 [116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89] (1996), Rowe v. State, 363 Md. 424 [769 A.2d 879] (2001).
3. That the Defendant has standing to challenge the illegal stop of the vehicle. Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 2[4]9 [127 S.Ct. 2400, 168 L.Ed.2d 132] (2007).
4. That after the vehicle was stopped, the Officer determined that the vehicle’s driver had a suspended license. [6]*6The driver was taken to the officer’s vehicle where he was issued traffic citations. After the citations were written, the passengers in the vehicle were illegally detained. Ferris v. State, 355 Md. 356 [735 A.2d 491] (1999).
5. The detention of the passengers was [a] “second stop.” The Officers had no independent reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal activity to detain the passengers after making the decision to issue the driver traffic citations. Charity v. State, 132 Md.App. 5[98, 753 A.2d 556] (2000).

Neither the omnibus motion nor the supplement specified the evidence that Petitioner sought to suppress.

At the outset of the motions hearing, Petitioner, through counsel, outlined for the court why the fraudulent credit cards and other unspecified evidence found in the vehicle should be suppressed. Petitioner first asserted that he had standing to challenge the traffic stop, then articulated the basis for his suppression motion:

[I]f the State prevails on the traffic stop issue which we believe was illegal, the issue would then become that it becomes a second stop essentially of the group of people which then leads to a search of the female down the road, and that that second stop of the passengers would also be illegal.

Two witnesses testified at the hearing, Sergeant Mark White and Officer Robert Sheehan, both of whom were called by the State. Petitioner offered no evidence, testimonial or otherwise.

Sergeant White testified that he was on patrol on Interstate 270 on October 5, 2010, when he drove past a black Ford Expedition. Sergeant White noticed that the Expedition had blue-tinted headlights instead of white2 and there were multiple air fresheners hanging from the windshield, which he [7]*7believed obstructed the view of the driver.3 Based on these perceived Code violations, Sergeant White initiated a traffic stop of the Expedition. Before approaching the vehicle, Sergeant White performed a computer search of the Expedition’s license plate number, revealing that the driver’s license of the registered owner of the vehicle, Antoine Norris, had been suspended.

Following that portion of Sergeant White’s testimony, defense counsel asked the court to hear argument and rule on the legality of the stop. The court agreed, heard from counsel, and ruled that the traffic stop of the vehicle was lawful because Sergeant White’s observation of the blue headlights provided the requisite justification to believe that the owner of the Expedition was violating a Maryland traffic law.

Sergeant White resumed his testimony, describing next that he approached the driver of the Expedition, Mr. Norris, and asked for his license and registration. Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 A.3d 1143, 435 Md. 1, 2013 WL 5382208, 2013 Md. LEXIS 606, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ray-v-state-md-2013.