State of Maine v. Graves

CourtSuperior Court of Maine
DecidedJuly 17, 2017
DocketCUMcr-16-3494
StatusUnpublished

This text of State of Maine v. Graves (State of Maine v. Graves) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Maine v. Graves, (Me. Super. Ct. 2017).

Opinion

STATE OF MAINE UNIFIED CRIMINAL DOCKET CUMBERLAND, ss. No. CR-16-3494 S rATE OF MAINE Curnberlond, ss , Clerk's Office

STATE OF MAINE JUL f 7 20f7 V. RECEIVED ORDER

JASON GRAVES,

Defendant

Before the cou1t is a motion by defendant Jason Graves to suppress the results of a search

during the early morning hours of June 16, 2016 of a vehicle in which he was a passenger. A

hearing was held on June 27, 2017.

The court finds the following by a preponderance of the evidence:

Sometime around 11 :30pm on June 15, 2016 New I lampshire State Trooper Brian Gacek

stopped a red Chevrolet Cobalt sedan with Maine license plate 9672 UQ heading no1th on

Interstate 95 south of the Hampton NH toll station. His stop was based on some drifting between

lanes and the fact that he ran the registration, which indicated that the license plate belonged on a

dit1erent vehick The legality of that stop is not challenged in the motion to suppress. In the

course of that slop Trooper Gacek spoke to the driver of the vehicle, Robert Robinson, and the

front seat passenger, Jason Graves, the defendant in this case.

During the course of his initial interaction with Robinson and Graves, Trooper Gacek

observed a baggie with the corner cut off · frequently used to package drugs - and noticed that

both occupants were very nervous . 1 Robinson said they were coming from Connecticut bul

initially could not answer where in Connecticut, then mentioned I Iartford. By this time Gacek

1 Uacek also observed a large open bag of Skittles and multiple sodas, which in his eKpericnce can be an indication of drug use because addicts consume high sugar foods to ease the effects of coming down from being high. hac.l discovered that the registration was in order2 but he had formed a reasonable articulable

suspicion that there were illegal drugs in the vehicle. As a rcsull, he spoke to Robinson outside of

the car, and Robinson then stated that he had been to Connecticut to pick up a small pit bull

puppy from someone named "Frenchie," who knew Graves's girlfriend. At this point Robinson

also said he had been to several towns in Connecticut (but this time omitted Hartford) and told

Gacek that he had had a drug problem but had been clean for 5 years. Gacek then spoke

separately to Graves, who contradicted Robinson by stating that neither he nor his girlfriend

knew "Frenchie."

Gacek asked for consent to search the vehicle, which Robinson gave both orally and in

writing. Gacek did not find any drugs but found a Burger King bag on the floor of the passenger

compartment, where Graves had been seated, which contained baggies with used needles and

baggies containing a powdery substance that looked like drug residue. In the course of the search

both Graves and Robinson changed their stories - acknowledging that they had not picked up the

puppy but had instead gone to Connecticut to sell Robinson's ttuck. When Gacek said he did not

believe that story, Robinson said he had transferred his truck to pay off a drug debt.

When Gacek searched the vehicle, he did not find any drugs. No canine was available,

and Gacek decided not to make an arrest based on the residue that he had observed, so he

allowed Robinson and Graves to proceed. However, Gacek thereatler communicated by text with

Maine State Police Sgt. Kevin Rooney. In his texts Gacek identified the vehicle by model, color

and license plate and informed Rooney that he had seen needles and drug residue. He stated that

he was convinced he had missed drugs in the vehicle. In a subsequent phone call Gacek did not

1 The car had been registered the previous day by Graves's girlfriend using a pre-existing plate number. Thal change of registration had not yet been entered into the database available to Gacek when he ran the registration.

2 provide all the details of his interaction with Robinson and Graves, hut Gacek did state lhal their

stories had been inconsistent and they had been very nervous.

Sgt. Rooney went out to mile marker 36 on the Turnpike in Saco. At around I :36 am on

June 16, he observed the red Cobalt sedan travelling north and began following it. Although he

obst:rved some driving that he considered odd,3 he did not observe any traffic violations.

I [owever, he also ran the registration while following the vehicle and learned that the vehicle

seemed to have an expired registration and that the license plate appeared to belong on a

diftcrcnt vehicle. For that reason, Rooney activated his blue lights at around I :38 am.'1

Rooney did not know that the vehicle had been registered the previous day using a pre­

existing plate number because that information was not available when he ran the registration

and had not been communicated to him by Gacek. Graves does not challenge the legality of

Rooney's initial stop.

After the vehicle stopped, Rooney approached the vehicle and asked for driver's license

mid registration. Within several minutes he ascertained that the car was properly registered to a

third party. Howevt:r, based on the information he had received from Gacek and Rooney's own

observations that both occupants of the vehicle were extremely nervous, Rooney reasonably

suspected that there were drugs in the vehicle. 5 He asked the driver, Robinson, to step out of the

vehicle, conducted a pat-down search, and inquirt:d where the vehicle was coming from.

1 ·When he rirst obserwd the vehicle, it seemed to be following another car too closely even though there was very little Lrnffic. Once he followed it, it changed lanes and began to drive approximately IO miles below the speed limit. 1 'Tcclrnic;illy, the detention of the vehicle commenced approximately 30 seconds later, when the vehicle came to a halt at the side of the road. See Arizona v. Johnson, 555 U.S. 323, 332 (2009).

l That the vehicle was registered to a third party was co11sistc11t with Rooney's suspicion, because he was aware that persons transporting narcotics ofteo used vehicle belonging to others in an attempt to avoid any vehicle forfeiture in the event narcotics were discovered in the vehicle.

3 Robinson stated that he had been to Connecticut and had sold a ttuck there to a Dominican or

Pue1to Rican named "Frenchie." Robinson added that his vehicle had been searched by a law

enforcement officer in New Hampshire and stated that Sgt. Rooney could also search the vehicle

if he wanted to.

Robinson voluntarily gave his consent to search - consistent with the previous consent to

search he had given in New Hampshire -- and he did so almost immediately . The cruiser camera

video of the stop (State's Ex. 3) has almost no audio because Rooney left his microphone in the

cruiser. It indicates that Robinson exited the vehicle at Sgt. Rooney's request less than two

minutes after Sgt. Rooney first approached the vehicle, that Rooney's initial discussion with

Robinson lasted approximately a minute, and that consent was given at that time - within three

or four minutes after the stop. There is a brief snippet of audio from the cruiser camera video

which confirms that, after initially conversing with Robinson, Rooney briefly returned to the

cruiser approximately three and a half minutes after the stop and advised the dispatcher by radio

that he was going to conduct a search of the vehicle. This timing is also consistent with Rooney's

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State of Maine v. Graves, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-maine-v-graves-mesuperct-2017.