United States v. Andrade

925 F. Supp. 71, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6473, 1996 WL 243458
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedMay 8, 1996
DocketCriminal Action 95-10125-RCL
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 925 F. Supp. 71 (United States v. Andrade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Andrade, 925 F. Supp. 71, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6473, 1996 WL 243458 (D. Mass. 1996).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

LINDSAY, District Judge.

Before the court are two motions of the defendant, Jose V. Andrade, Jr., to suppress. In one, Andrade seeks to suppress statements allegedly made by him to law enforcement officers on December 16 and December 19, 1994, together with any fruits of those statements. In the second, he seeks suppression of two guns, a firearms manual and ammunition seized during a warrantless search of the third floor apartment at 21 Inwood Street, Dorchester, Massachusetts 1 on December 16, 1994. As grounds for the first motion, Andrade argues that the statements alleged were the product of an unlawful arrest and were, in addition, involuntarily extracted from him in violation of his rights as set forth in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966) and Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). As to the second motion, Andrade argues that the items in question were seized in violation of his rights under the Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution.

An evidentiary hearing on the motions was held on January 25 and 26 and February 12, 13 and 14,1996.

I. Findings of Background Facts

Based on the record of the evidentiary hearing, the court finds the following background facts.

On December 16, 1994, Detective Robert Memer, a Boston police officer assigned to the City’s Youth Violence Strike Force (‘YVSF”), stopped an automobile which An-drade was driving on Columbia Road in Dor-chester, Massachusetts. The stop followed a surveillance of Andrade on December 16 by law enforcement officers. The stop was ordered by Detective Sergeant Paul Joyce, Memer’s superior in the YVSF. At the time the stop was made, Andrade had been a target of an investigation of several months’ duration for what was believed by law enforcement officials to be his trafficking in firearms in the City of Boston; his license to operate a motor vehicle in Massachusetts was then under suspension; and he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”). At the time he took Andrade into custody, Memer had been informed by other law enforcement officers of the existence of the INS warrant and of the suspension of Andrade’s license to operate a motor vehicle. As a participant in the gun-trafficking investigation, Merner was aware of information which led him reasonably to believe that he had probable cause to arrest Andrade for various firearm offenses. He also reasonably believed that he had probable cause to arrest Andrade on the INS warrant and for operating a motor vehicle with his license under suspension.

After he took Andrade into custody, Mer-ner transported Andrade to the headquarters of the YVSF at the Roxbury, Massachusetts substation of the Boston Police Department. At no time did Memer advise Andrade of his Miranda rights. 2 No booking facilities existed at the Roxbury substation, and Andrade was not formally charged with any crime.

*74 Andrade was detained at the Roxbury substation for about four hours, during part of which time he was handcuffed to a chair in a 12 feet by 12 feet room called the detectives’ room.

While he was detained at the Roxbury substation, Andrade was intermittently questioned by law enforcement officers. One such officer was a special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (“ATF”), Daniel E. Campbell. Campbell was at the Roxbuiy substation when Andrade arrived and was the first officer to interrogate Andrade. Before doing so, Campbell read to Andrade, from a printed card, An-drade’s Miranda rights. He did so in the presence of Massachusetts State Police Officer, Francis J. Matthews, who was also assigned to the YVSF. Andrade stated to the officers that he understood his rights.

At the time of Campbell’s initial interrogation of Andrade, Campbell and officers of the YVSF were preparing to execute search warrants at the first floor apartment at 66 Rich-field Street in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where Andrade was believed to be residing with his family, and at the first floor apartment at 21 Inwood Street, Dorchester, where a relative of Andrade resided. The warrants had been issued by a United States Magistrate Judge to permit searches of the premises in question for firearms and evidence of the distribution of firearms.

Campbell told Andrade thát Andrade was suspected of trafficking in firearms between Mississippi and Massachusetts, and that Campbell and other law enforcement officers planned to execute search warrants at 66 Richfield Street and 21 Inwood Street. An-drade replied that he was not a dealer in firearms, but rather that he was a gun collector. Campbell then asked Andrade if a search of the Inwood Street and Richfield Street locations would produce anything of interest to law enforcement officers. An-drade replied that, in the third floor apartment at 21 Inwood Street, the officers would find two firearms, a shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver. Andrade resided in the third floor apartment at 21 Inwood Street with his girlfriend, Gabriella Spinola, during breaks in his attendance at college in Jackson, Mississippi.

At the time of Campbell’s initial interrogation of Andrade, no search warrant had been issued to Campbell or other law enforcement officers for the third floor apartment at 21 Inwood Street. Campbell asked if Andrade would provide him with a key to that apartment, and Andrade declined, saying that the apartment belonged to Spinola, and not to him, and that Andrade, for that reason, could not give consent to a search of the apartment. Andrade did provide Campbell with Spinola’s workplace telephone number.

Spinola, a high school graduate with computer training, worked in customer service at Neighborhood Health Plan, a health maintenance organization. By December 16, 1994, she had held that job for more than five years.

After obtaining Spinola’s workplace telephone number from Andrade, Campbell left the Roxbury substation to execute the search warrants. Matthews remained with An-drade, guarding him. At some point during his stay in the detectives’ room with Matthews, Andrade was visited by INS special agent Joseph A Gaeta. Gaeta began to ask questions of Andrade concerning immigration matters, but Andrade became very agitated and, with a wave of the hand, dismissed Gaeta. Matthews then asked Gaeta to step outside the room. Gaeta did so and did not question Andrade further that day.

Following Gaeta’s departure from the detectives’ room, and while Matthews and An-drade were still together, Memer came in and overheard Andrade protesting to Matthews that he was a college student and not a dealer in firearms. Merner spoke to An-drade disapprovingly, “[telling him] ... not to give us the college student wrap [sic], that ... Andrade was in the business of selling firearms to young Cape Verdian males from his neighborhood. And in fact ... Andrade was selling death in this neighborhood to young kids_” At this point Andrade directed heated words to Merner and gave Memer a dismissive flick of the wrist.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
925 F. Supp. 71, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6473, 1996 WL 243458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-andrade-mad-1996.