United States v. Burgos

484 F. Supp. 605, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10100
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 20, 1980
DocketNo. 79-329-CR-EPS
StatusPublished

This text of 484 F. Supp. 605 (United States v. Burgos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Burgos, 484 F. Supp. 605, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10100 (S.D. Fla. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SPELLMAN, District Judge.

The three defendants in this case have filed objections to the Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation that recommends that cocaine seized by customs agents on September 24, 1979 should not be suppressed. For the following reasons, the Report and Recommendation is adopted in part, and the Motion to Suppress is DENIED.

At an evidentiary hearing before Magistrate Shapiro, the following facts were established. Sometime in August of 1979, a confidential informant notified Customs Patrol Officer Blair that the vessel “GEMMA I” would be arriving in Miami from Colombia, South America, with a large amount of cocaine. The report also indicated that a seaman named Cardona was involved in the transportation of the substance. On September 24, 1979, at about noon, the “GEM-MA I” arrived at Miami, and docked at the Bernuth Marine Shipping Company dock. Customs inspection and clearance were performed on the vessel between that time and 2:00 P.M. No one was permitted off the boat after 2:00 P.M. Between 2:00 P.M. and 3:00 P.M., the vessel was not under surveillance and anyone could have left the “GEMMA I” without interrogation or inspection. At the time, there was a second foreign ship at the dock, the “FEDROS.”

At 3:00 P.M., surveillance was established. Cardona left the ship at 6:00 P.M. and was immediately searched, but no cocaine was found. At 11:00 P.M., CPO Benavente and CPO Larison went on duty and began conducting surveillance from an automobile located at the easterly end and outside the Bernuth Marine Complex. From this point, the agents could observe the stern portion of the “GEMMA I” and also the small open gate of the Complex. A blue Chevrolet was observed at 11:10 P.M. parked immediately outside the Complex. (The record is devoid of when it arrived.) At 12:50 A.M., three men were seen by the agents from a distance of 100 yards, exiting the small gate and moving rapidly, with one of the men entering the backseat of the vehicle in an “awkward” manner.

The agents followed the car, activating their lights and siren, and stopped it a few blocks away at a closed but lighted Chevron station. The officers got out of their car with guns drawn. CPO Benavente, while approaching the blue Chevrolet, observed through the window between defendants Vargas and Nossa-Sanchez some plastic bags about ten inches square with white tape on them and containing a white substance, which later tested to be cocaine. Defendants were ordered out of the car and arrested. The “GEMMA I” was searched the next day and cocaine was found in the cabin of seaman Cardona.

Magistrate Shapiro concluded that the agents had reasonable suspicion to search anyone coming off either of the ships and leaving the dock area at the time in question and acting in the manner described. Therefore, the border search of the defendants was constitutional and the subsequent seizure was valid under the “plain view” doctrine. In objecting to the Magistrate’s findings, the defendants take two positions. First, that the search was invalid because the customs officials had no reasonable suspicion as to these particular defendants, since the only information they possessed related to seaman Cardona alone. See United States v. Afanador, 567 F.2d 1325, 1331 (5th Cir. 1978). Second, that the offi[607]*607cers acted in a manner such that the stop of the vehicle amounted to an arrest under United States v. Beck, 598 F.2d 497 (9th Cir. 1979) and United States v. Morrison, 546 F.2d 319 (9th Cir. 1976). This being an arrest without probable cause and therefore invalid, the subsequent “plain view” seizure would also be infirm under the “fruit of the poisonous tree” doctrine. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).

I. REASONABLE SUSPICION

Defendants have conceded that the stop of their car at the gas station was at the border or its functional equivalent. See Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1972); United States v. Brennan, 538 F.2d 711 (5th Cir. 1976). Therefore, this Court is faced with determining what constitutes sufficient cause to permit a search on the facts in this case. It is clear that the standard of reasonableness for border searches is less than probable cause and that such a search does not require a warrant. United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 619, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 1980, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977); United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975); Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, supra.

The courts speak broadly of the reasonable suspicion standard. This test has been adopted in the Fifth Circuit based on its inherent flexibility, as opposed to the “real suspicion” standard of the Ninth Circuit. See United States v. Himmelwright, 551 F.2d 991 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v. Smith, 557 F.2d 1206 (5th Cir. 1977). In this context, the reasonableness of a search will depend on the nature of the intrusion into the privacy interest affected, as balanced against the public interest to be served by that intrusion. United States v. Himmelwright, supra at 994; United States v. Afanador, 567 F.2d 1325 (5th Cir. 1978). The recognition of the use of such a sliding-scale standard is reflected in the Afanador opinion wherein it is stated (567 F.2d at 1328):

“Thus, what constitutes ‘reasonable suspicion’ to justify a particular search may not suffice to justify a more intrusive or demeaning search.”

In Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 98 S.Ct. 330, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977), respondent was ordered out of the car after being stopped for driving with an expired tag. As he exited the car, a bulge was seen under his jacket, and a frisk revealed a loaded revolver. In reversing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s holding that the revolver was seized in violation of the respondent’s Fourth Amendment rights, the Supreme Court of the United States stated that the order to get out of the car was reasonable when weighing the officer’s concern for his safety against the limited intrusion that it entailed (434 U.S. at 111, 98 S.Ct. at 333):

“Against this important interest we are asked to weigh the intrusion into the driver’s personal liberty occasioned not by the initial stop of the vehicle, which was admittedly justified, but by the order to get out of the car.

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Related

Brinegar v. United States
338 U.S. 160 (Supreme Court, 1949)
Wong Sun v. United States
371 U.S. 471 (Supreme Court, 1963)
Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Coolidge v. New Hampshire
403 U.S. 443 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Almeida-Sanchez v. United States
413 U.S. 266 (Supreme Court, 1973)
United States v. Brignoni-Ponce
422 U.S. 873 (Supreme Court, 1975)
United States v. Ramsey
431 U.S. 606 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Pennsylvania v. Mimms
434 U.S. 106 (Supreme Court, 1977)
United States v. John J. Brennan
538 F.2d 711 (Fifth Circuit, 1976)
United States v. Brian James Morrison
546 F.2d 319 (Ninth Circuit, 1976)
United States v. Mary Ann Himmelwright
551 F.2d 991 (Fifth Circuit, 1977)
United States v. Steven Smith
557 F.2d 1206 (Fifth Circuit, 1977)
Brinegar v. United States
165 F.2d 512 (Tenth Circuit, 1948)
United States v. Broomfield
336 F. Supp. 179 (E.D. Michigan, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
484 F. Supp. 605, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-burgos-flsd-1980.