United States v. Bohannon

67 F. Supp. 3d 536, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172721, 2014 WL 7156654
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedDecember 15, 2014
DocketCriminal Case No. 3:13-CR-229
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 67 F. Supp. 3d 536 (United States v. Bohannon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Bohannon, 67 F. Supp. 3d 536, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172721, 2014 WL 7156654 (D. Conn. 2014).

Opinion

RULING RE: MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE

(Doc. No. 134)

JANET C. HALL, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Before the court is defendant Jonathan Bohannon’s Motion to Suppress Evidence (Doc. No. 134). Bohannon argues that the government’s search óf Shonsai Dickson’s car and apartment — the apartment at which he was staying when he was arrested — violated his Fourth Amendment rights. On August 22, 2014, the court held argument on Bohannon’s Motion to Suppress Evidence. The court conducted an evidentiary hearing on the Motion on November 13, 2014.

For the reasons that follow, Bohannon’s Motion is granted in part and denied in part.

II. BACKGROUND AND FACTUAL FINDINGS

On December 4, 2013, Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons signed an Arrest Warrant (Doc. No. 3) based on the govern[540]*540ment’s Criminal Complaint (Doc. No. 1), which alleged that Bohannon committed Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with Intent to Distribute Narcotics, in violation of sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B), and 846 of title 21 of the United States Code, as well as Use of a Communications Facility in Furtherance of a Narcotics Trafficking Felony, in violation section 843(b) of title 21 of the United States Code.

In the early hours of December 5, 2014, law enforcement officers, including agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the “FBI”) and detectives of the Bridgeport Police Department, prepared their arrest operation at Central High School, which is in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The officers’ original plan was to arrest Bohannon in his home, which was located at 103 Crestview Drive in Bridgeport, Connecticut. However, the officers’ arrest plan changed when Special Agent (“SA”) Michael Zuk, the agent in charge of the case against Bohan-non and his co-defendants, received information that Bohannon’s cell phone was within an area that did not include his residence.1 The cell phone data was not able to pinpoint exactly where Bohannon’s phone was, but it gave a general area based on the location of the cellular tower with which Bohannon’s phone had most recently interacted.2 The location information provided by Verizon according to the wiretap warrant included a residence located at 34 Morgan Avenue, which is also in Bridgeport, Connecticut.3 The location of 34. Morgan Avenue is roughly two miles southeast of 103 Crestview Avenue. In addition to 34 Morgan, the area indicated by the cellular location information included many other buildings.

Having received this information, SA Zuk told the agents to conduct the arrest operation at 34 Morgan because of Bohan-non’s perceived association with that address. See infra Part III.C.

The officers proceeded from Central High School to 34 Morgan; which took only a short time because the two properties abut each other. Once the officers arrived at 34 Morgan, SA Ryan James and other officers knocked and announced their presence at the front door. Meanwhile, Bridgeport Police Detectives Paul Ortiz and Thomas Scholl, went to the back en[541]*541trance of Dickson’s second floor apartment and knocked on the door. Having heard no response, Detectives Ortiz and Scholl opened the door, which was unlocked, and entered the apartment. The officers at the front door continued to wait outside the apartment.

Certain details of what happened in the apartment are disputed, but the general outline of what occurred is relatively simple.4 Dickson awoke to her sister informing her that someone was knocking on the front door. Two officers then entered the apartment into the kitchen, where they saw Dickson briefly before she entered another room. The officers followed Dickson into what turned out to be a bedroom, where they saw Bohannon lying in a bed.5 Dickson stood next to the bed on the side closer to the doorway, and Bohannon was lying on the side of bed closer to the window. The officers stated that they had a warrant for Bohannon’s arrest. Bohan-non stood up next to his side of the bed, where he was next to the windows and a closet. The officers then approached Bo-hannon’s side of the bed, looked around quickly, and began placing Bohannon under arrest. Before Bohannon was handcuffed, Detective Ortiz left the bedroom and walked to the front door, which he opened for the rest of the arrest team to enter.

SA James and the other agents had waited for about eight minutes at the front door before Detective Ortiz let them in the apartment. The arrest team entered the bedroom to find Dickson standing on one side of the bed and Bohannon on the other.6 Officer Scholl stood near Bohannon, but he had not yet handcuffed him. SA James testified that, as he and Task Force Officer (“TFO”) Jason Guerrara approached Bohannon and Officer Scholl, Officer Scholl indicated to him to look under the bed. As SA James held Bohannon and TFO Guerrara put him in handcuffs, SA James looked under the bed and saw bags containing white powder. He identified the substance as crack cocaine.

At some point, Bohannon was allowed to put a pair of pants on. Before Bohannon put the pants on, an officer searched the pants and found a large amount of cash. Bohannon was handcuffed and brought into the kitchen.

At about the same time, Dickson was removed from the room and brought to the dining room. Dickson testified that the officers were kind to her. Indeed, on their way to the dining room, the officers allowed her to go into the bathroom unaccompanied so that she could brush her teeth. After she and Bohannon were both removed from the bedroom, Dickson said that officers had gone into the bedroom to retrieve Bohannon’s shoes. After that, officers came to the dining room and told her that they had found crack cocaine while conducting an “arms-length” search. Dickson had been a Criminal Justice major in college, and' she had some understanding that officers were allowed to conduct a limited search, incident to an arrest, of the [542]*542area in which the arrestee could reach for a weapon or destructible evidence. The officers informed her that she and her sister, who shared the apartment with her, could be arrested based on the drug evidence the officers had found.7 As the officers explained this, Dickson became upset and Bohannon began shouting from the kitchen, confessing that everything was his. The officers asked for her consent to search the apartment, and they told her they would obtain a search warrant if she did not consent. Dickson gave the officers verbal consent to search. Dickson signed a form consenting to the search of her apartment' after she read the form to herself and the officers read it out loud to her.

Later, although it is not clear exactly when, the officers sought her consent to search her cars, which they believed Bo-hannon had been using. ■ Dickson gave her consent verbally and then on the consent form. The officers also presented her with her Miranda rights, and Dickson then signed a form acknowledging those rights.

After the officers obtained Dickson’s consent to search the apartment, they found guns and ammunition in the bedroom closet next to where Bohannon had been sleeping, as well as more crack cocaine, a digital scale, and cash in a dresser drawer in the bedroom. With Dickson’s consent to search her car, the officers found another gun in the Camry.

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Related

United States v. Bohannon
247 F. Supp. 3d 189 (D. Connecticut, 2017)
United States v. Bohannon
824 F.3d 242 (Second Circuit, 2016)
4679-Cr
Second Circuit, 2016

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 F. Supp. 3d 536, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172721, 2014 WL 7156654, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-bohannon-ctd-2014.