State v. Moreno

619 So. 2d 62, 1993 WL 174111
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 24, 1993
Docket92-K-0089
StatusPublished
Cited by69 cases

This text of 619 So. 2d 62 (State v. Moreno) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Moreno, 619 So. 2d 62, 1993 WL 174111 (La. 1993).

Opinion

619 So.2d 62 (1993)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Olga MORENO.

No. 92-K-0089.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 24, 1993.

*63 Kevin V. Boshea, New Orleans, for applicant.

Richard Ieyob, Atty. Gen., John M. Mamoulides, Dist. Atty., Louise S. Korns, Dorothy Pendergast, Alan Green, Barron C. Burmaster, Asst. Dist. Attys., for respondent.

DENNIS, Justice.[*]

After the trial court overruled Olga Moreno's motion to suppress, she pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in excess of 400 grams, La.R.S. 40:967, and appealed from that ruling. See State v. Crosby, 338 So.2d 584 (La.1976). The court of appeal affirmed. State v. Moreno, 592 So.2d 823 (La.App. 5th Cir.1991). This court granted a writ to review the rulings below. State v. Moreno, 596 So.2d 541 (La.1992). We now reverse the trial court and court of appeal judgments and remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

On May 7, 1990, Officers Simone and Cummings were at the New Orleans International Airport, detailed to watch incoming flights from "source cities." One passenger arriving on Flight 1076 from Miami caught their attention. The officers testified *64 that a thirty-eight-year-old Hispanic female, later identified as defendant Olga Moreno, walked through the concourse in a hurried fashion. She looked nervously over her shoulder and from side to side; she held a purse and one carry-on bag. Believing this behavior and her departure point of Miami to be consistent with a "drug courier profile," the officers began a surveillance. They followed as she made her way downstairs and walked through the baggage claim area without claiming any luggage. After she exited the airport they stopped her, introduced themselves, and asked if she would speak with them. She agreed, telling the officers that she was traveling alone and had just arrived from Miami. Officer Simone asked her to produce some identification and her ticket. Although, Ms. Moreno was unable to find her ticket, she did produce an identification card and an American Airlines seating stub for seat 22-A.

Noticing that the stub showed seat 22-A assigned to a person named "Perez" while the identification card listed the name "Moreno," Simone suspected that Moreno was traveling under an alias, another element of the drug profile. Moreno's explanation was that she had bought her ticket from "a man at the airport in Miami." She also indicated that she was having trouble understanding the officers. They asked her to accompany them inside, where an interpreter would be found.

The officers led her to the Southwest Airlines baggage claim office and called in a bilingual airline employee. Through the interpreter, the officers asked the same questions and received the same answers. Under further questioning, Moreno said that she had been in Miami visiting friends for about three weeks.

Simone left Moreno alone with Cummings in the baggage claim office and went to the American Airlines ticket counter. While there, Simone learned that seat 22-A had been assigned to a passenger ticketed as "Velma Perez" and that seat 22-B had been assigned another ticketed as "Susanna Perez." He also learned that both seats had been booked at the same time by the same travel agency. When Simone returned, he further questioned Moreno about her travel arrangements. Moreno denied knowing a Susanna Perez and reiterated that she was traveling alone.

The detective then asked if he could search her purse and carry-on bag. She did not object. When Simone found only toiletries and a small amount of clothing in the small bag, he asked why she carried so little clothing. Moreno replied that she had left some of her belongings at her friend's house. The detective then asked if Moreno would consent to a full body search. When Moreno refused, stating that the officers needed "a paper" to search her, Simone immediately informed her that she was "detained," and that she would have to accompany them to their office on the second floor, where she would have to wait until they could get a search warrant. Simone's testimony indicated that Moreno was not free to leave after this point.

The officers then proceeded with Moreno from the baggage claim area up to the lobby area on the next level of the airport. As they were proceeding through the lobby in order to go up to the detectives' office on the floor above the lobby, they stopped at the American Airlines ticket counter to check the flight number and actual arrival time of Moreno's flight so that information could be included in an application for a search warrant. At this point, Simone left Moreno in the custody of Cummings and stepped away to look at the flight information board. Moreno asked Cummings where they were going, and Cummings told Moreno that they were going to get a search warrant. Moreno then told Cummings that a warrant would be unnecessary and that she would turn over the drugs she was carrying. Agent Cummings took Moreno into the women's restroom, where Moreno produced a small bag of cocaine from her person.

APPLICATION OF LEGAL PRECEPTS

Article I, section 5 of the Louisiana Constitution provides:

Every person shall be secure in his person, property, communications, houses, *65 papers, and effects against unreasonable searches, seizures, or invasions of privacy. No warrant shall issue without probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, the persons or things to be seized, and the lawful purpose or reason for the search. Any person adversely affected by a search or seizure conducted in violation of this Section shall have standing to raise its illegality in the appropriate court.

Except for a few narrowly drawn exceptions, a search or seizure requires a warrant. One of these exceptions is the investigatory stop, in which "[a] law enforcement officer may stop a person in a public place whom he reasonably suspects is committing, has committed, or is about to commit an offense and may demand of him his name, address, and an explanation of his actions." La.C.Cr.P. art. 215.1(A). Although the purpose of the stop is limited and the duration is brief, an investigatory stop constitutes a "seizure," State v. Bolden, 380 So.2d 40 (La.1980); see also Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1877, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (A person is seized under the Fourth Amendment when a reasonable person would think that he was not free to leave.). An investigatory stop must be justified by some objective manifestation that the person stopped is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity, or there must be reasonable grounds to believe that the person is wanted for past criminal conduct. Moresi v. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries, 567 So.2d 1081 (La.1990), citing authorities. Based on the totality of the circumstances—the whole picture—the detaining officers must have particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity. Id.

As this court held in a similar airport arrest case, the suspect's detention beyond initial questioning for the purpose of securing a search warrant is not merely a brief intrusion on liberty permissible under La.C.Cr.P. art. 215.1 or the Terry

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Bluebook (online)
619 So. 2d 62, 1993 WL 174111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moreno-la-1993.