United States v. Baines

373 F. Supp. 821, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9049
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedApril 10, 1974
DocketNo. 74 CR 34-W-1
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 373 F. Supp. 821 (United States v. Baines) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Baines, 373 F. Supp. 821, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9049 (W.D. Mo. 1974).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

I.

This case pends on defendants’ motion to suppress. The factual circumstances are established by the stipulation of facts filed March 28, 1974. We have considered all briefs filed both before and after the factual circumstances were settled by the stipulation of facts and conclude that the defendants’ motion to suppress should be denied.

II.

It is undisputed that Walker, a government informer, traveled with defendant Jones to California for the purpose of buying heroin. Defendant Baines drove Walker and Jones to the airport in Kansas City and agreed to pick them up when they returned from California. While in California, Walker observed Jones wrap heroin in toilet paper for transportation back to Kansas City. Walker did not know whether Jones would mail the heroin or take it with him on the airplane when he telephoned D.E.A. officials from California.

Walker’s telephone call to D.E.A. officials from California occurred on January 30, 1974. He reported that he and Jones would arrive on TWA Flight #92 at 5:00 a. m. on the morning of January 31, 1974. Walker also advised the D.E. [822]*822A. people that before leaving California, he would attempt to find out whether Jones had the heroin on his person and, if so, would remove his hat and scratch his head upon disembarkment from the plane in Kansas City. When Walker and Jones arrived at the Kansas City airport, Walker gave the signal. Defendant Baines, in further corroboration of Walker’s information, did indeed meet the plane. D.E.A. officers followed Baines and Jones to Baines’ automobile. As the D.E.A. officers approached Baines’ car, they observed Jones place his hand toward the floorboard of the automobile on the passenger side and then lock the passenger side door.

Both defendants were ordered out of the car and arrested. The automobile was then searched and heroin found on the floor, wrapped in toilet paper. Although not significantly relevant, it is stipulated that the heroin package could not have been seen from outside the car until the car door was opened. A search of the defendants’ persons outside the car produced no contraband. However, $150 apparently was taken from Jones and $800 from Baines. Baines’ money has been returned to him. Although defendants’ motion to suppress does not mention the $150-, defendants’ suggestions indicate that defendant Jones seeks a return of that money, a matter we need not rule at the present time.

It is, of course, stipulated that the D. E.A. officials proceeded without either an arrest or a search warrant. The reason why no warrant was obtained is not relevant. The fact that the D.E.A. officials did not attempt to obtain a warrant is relevant only in that they did not in fact have a warrant.

III.

Defendants, in their most recent suggestions, argue that the controlling case in this matter is Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), arguing that “a search incident to an arrest lies only for that area ‘within his immediate control.’ ” More appropriately defendants also argue that Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971) is applicable to this case. The government in its original brief relied on Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925). In its most recent suggestions, however, the government cites Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L. Ed.2d 327 (1959), as the leading case applicable to the case at bar.

The difficulty with the briefs filed by both sides is that appropriate recognition is not given to the fact that cases involving application of Fourth Amendment principles, in the final analysis, turn on the particular factual circumstances presented and that reliance upon broadly stated general principles is at best deceptive. The question presented under the undisputed particular facts of this case is whether or not the warrant-less automobile search is valid. This case does not involve any search of a defendant’s person and discussion of such cases is not appropriate. Under the rationale of current recent Supreme Court cases, this case does not involve any question in regard to whether the search may be justified as an incident of the defendants’ arrest. Under those cases, the factual question presented is whether the D.E.A. officers had probable cause both to make a warrantless arrest and a warrantless search of the automobile.

It is completely unrealistic to attempt properly to rule a Fourth Amendment case without giving careful consideration to the rationale of recent Supreme Court cases. In something of an understatement, Mr. Justice Rehnquist recently commented in Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 439, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 2527, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973), that while general Fourth Amendment principles may be easily stated “the decisions of this Court dealing with the constitutionality of warrantless searches, especially when those searches are of vehicles, suggest that this branch of the law is something less than a seamless web.” [823]*823Cady purported to accept the principle that, except in certain carefully defined classes of cases, a search was “unreasonable” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment unless authorized by a valid search warrant. Cady, however, over the usual vigorous dissent which typifies Fourth Amendment cases, concluded that “one class of cases which constitute at least a partial exception to this general rule is automobile searches.”

Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 52, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 1982, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970), was quoted by Cady to support a required recognition that “there is a constitutional difference between houses and cars.” Chambers v. Maroney, which did involve an automobile search, like Chimel v. California, which involved a person’s search, at least served the function of simplifying the task of lower federal courts in ruling Fourth Amendment cases. Until Chimel was decided, for example, lower federal courts had great difficulty in knowing whether United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653, and Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 91 L.Ed. 1399, could be safely followed in a Fourth Amendment case. Chimel, consistent with critical commentary of many years standing, concluded that both Rabinowitz and Harris should no longer be followed by the lower federal courts.

Chambers v. Maroney, on the other hand, dealt with Carroll v. United States, supra, and Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949), which reaffirmed and followed Carroll. Both Carroll and Brinegar

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Bluebook (online)
373 F. Supp. 821, 1974 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9049, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-baines-mowd-1974.