United States v. Askew-Bell

306 F. App'x 292
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 5, 2009
DocketNo. 08-1460
StatusPublished

This text of 306 F. App'x 292 (United States v. Askew-Bell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Askew-Bell, 306 F. App'x 292 (7th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

ORDER

Ashley Askew-Bell was charged with robbing three banks. See 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). She moved to suppress the evidence taken from her purse after an encounter with a police officer, as well as her post-arrest confession. The district court denied the motion, and Askew-Bell entered conditional guilty pleas to all three counts. She was sentenced to a total of 42 months’ imprisonment. On appeal she challenges only the denial of her motion to suppress.

During the summer of 2006, a robber claiming to have a gun pulled off three bank heists near the Evanston-Chicago border. Two weeks after the third robbery, Askew-Bell, who had been visiting her aunt, walked out of an Evanston nurs[293]*293ing home less than 100 yards from the Greater Bank of Chicago, one of the robbed banks. As she walked along Howard Street, which divides Chicago from Evanston, Officer Ralph Miezala spotted her from his vehicle. Miezala thought that Askew-Bell bore a strong resemblance to the photocopied surveillance pictures of the robber that he kept in his car: like the bandit, she was a “heavy-set or pregnant” black woman dressed in a white top, black pants, and dark sunglasses. She also carried her purse in a distinctive fashion, “high up underneath her arm,” just like the robber. Miezala, who was driving the opposite way on Howard Street, turned his car around and followed Askew-Bell. She noticed him, though, and crossed the street to walk away from him. Miezala turned into an alley to avoid arousing Askew-Bell’s suspicion, but eventually lost her.

Officer Miezala then drove to the Greater Bank of Chicago to make sure the robber had not attempted another heist. Finding the bank peaceful, he left and double-checked the photocopied surveillance pictures to confirm his sense that Askew-Bell resembled the bandit. As Miezala drove down Howard Street, he again spotted Askew-Bell walking near the nursing home. He radioed the dispatcher and asked for backup, and then parked his squad car and approached Askew-Bell. Miezala told her that she looked like someone the police were searching for and asked to see some identification. Askew-Bell replied that she did not have any identification. She also told Miezala that her name was “Bertha Sharp,” though she twice misspelled her purported last name, omitting the “a” before she finally corrected herself on the third try.

Officer Miezala next asked for a date of birth and address. Askew-Bell provided an address and birth date (they later proved false) and then told Miezala she was eight months pregnant and needed to use a restroom. Miezala replied: “I’m not going to detain you long. I just want your name.” She insisted that she needed to find a restroom immediately and asked Miezala if she could return to the nursing home to use its restroom. He relented, telling her that he would walk her back to the nursing home. He also explained to her that he was “looking for a female bank robber.”

The pair entered the nursing home. As Askew-Bell approached the restroom, her purse began to slip off her shoulder. Officer Miezala, worried that she might have a gun in her purse or that she might try to escape through a window in the bathroom, grabbed the purse from her arm. She asked him to return it, explaining that she needed a tampon from the bag. He refused. She tried a different tactic, this time claiming she needed medication from the purse. He again refused and decided to prevent her from using the restroom and instead to radio for a female officer who could frisk her and search her purse. But as the two walked back toward the nursing home’s front door, Askew-Bell turned and fled back into the nursing home, escaping through an emergency exit.

A second officer, Brian Rust, had just arrived at the nursing home. He caught Askew-Bell in front of the facility and handcuffed her. Miezala, catching up with the others, emptied Askew-Bell’s purse onto the “grass in front of her.” Among the contents he discovered her student identification card, which bore her real name. He opened her wallet and saw part of a handwritten note with the words “I have a gun.”

The officers took her to the police station, where a further search of her purse revealed a ten-dollar bill stained with red [294]*294ink. Miezala also inspected the rest of the handwritten note, which reads in full: “I have a gun and will shoot! Put the money on the counter and let me leave and nobody gets hurt!” She eventually confessed to the officers that she was the robber of all three banks. The Evanston police then handed the case over to the FBI, and she was indicted for three counts of bank robbery.

She moved to suppress the contents of her purse and, as a “fruit” of the purse seizure, her post-arrest confession. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Miezala testified that Askew-Bell was “a dead ringer” for the woman in the surveillance shots:

Q: Did the person that you saw when you were driving eastbound resemble anyone that you had seen before?
Miezala: Yes. I mean, when I was driving and then, you know, I saw her, I mean, that was — it was like I was looking at this photo—
Q: Who did that person look like?
Miezala: — of the robbery from the Chicago bank on July 22, the one that—
Q: How close of a resemblance would you say it was?
Miezala: Very close. I mean, you know, as far as color of the clothing, the sunglasses, the way she carried her purse, I mean, it was like a slap in the face. It was like wow. There was no hesitation.

Miezala also explained that he suspected Askew-Bell had given him a false name when she misspelled “Sharp.” And he testified that he guessed her request for tampons was a ruse because women in their eighth month of pregnancy typically do not use tampons. Miezala conceded, however, that he frequently sees “heavy-set African-American women” near the EvanstonChicago border and that many women carry their purses “high under the arm” like Askew-Bell had. He also acknowledged that the photocopied surveillance pictures were somewhat blurry and less clear than the original photographs.

We first consider whether Askew-Bell’s encounter with Officer Miezala was initially consensual or, as she contends, a Fourth Amendment seizure from the inception. The key question is whether a reasonable person would feel free to end the encounter. United States v. Clements, 522 F.3d 790, 794 (7th Cir.2008). In making this determination, courts look to factors including the location of the encounter, the number of police officers present, and whether the officers escalated the encounter by displaying weapons, using a forceful tone or language, touching the citizen, or forcing the person to move to another location. Clements, 522 F.3d at 794; United States v. Adamson, 441 F.3d 513, 520 (7th Cir.2006).

Askew-Bell suggests that no reasonable person would have felt free to leave after a police officer had just told her she resembled someone his department was searching for and then insisted upon accompanying her to the restroom. She may be right, but the point is irrelevant.

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Bluebook (online)
306 F. App'x 292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-askew-bell-ca7-2009.