United States v. Cassetti Brown

567 F. App'x 272
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMay 12, 2014
Docket12-30235
StatusUnpublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 567 F. App'x 272 (United States v. Cassetti Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Cassetti Brown, 567 F. App'x 272 (5th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

JAMES L. DENNIS, Circuit Judge * :

Defendant-Appellant Cassetti Dewayne Brown (“Brown”) appeals his conviction of possession with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of crack cocaine in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B). He contends that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction and that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence seized from his vehicle after a traffic stop and from his residence after a warrant search. We hold that the district court did not err in finding that the search of the vehicle was lawful under the Fourth Amendment, and denying Brown’s motion to suppress the evidence seized in the vehicle. However, because the police officers who conducted the search of Brown’s residence did not act in good faith and because the magistrate judge did not have a substantial basis for finding probable cause for the search of Brown’s home, the district court erred in denying Brown’s motion to suppress with regard to the evidence obtained during the search of his residence. We therefore affirm the district court’s order denying Brown’s motion to suppress the evidence found in Brown’s car, reverse the district court’s order denying Brown’s motion to suppress the evidence found in Brown’s residence, vacate the conviction and sentence, and remand for further proceedings.

I. Background

A. Facts

1. Traffic Stop

On August 11, 2010 at approximately 11:20 p.m., Bryan Somers (“Somers”), then a police officer with the Leesville Police Department, was driving his marked police unit on highway 171 in Leesville, Louisi *274 ana. He was traveling with his drug-detecting dog, who was trained to detect narcotics. Somers conducted a traffic stop of a Jeep sports utility vehicle, driven by Brown, after Brown turned onto the highway without yielding to Somers. Brown was accompanied by Taiwanna Cole (“Cole”), who sat in the front passenger seat. When Somers approached Brown’s vehicle, he observed an open container of alcohol in the center console, smelled alcohol, and noticed that Brown had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Brown admitted that he had been drinking earlier in the evening but stated that he was not intoxicated and that he was driving to his house “down the road.” Brown and Cole both told Somers that the open container of alcohol belonged to Cole.

Somers asked for Brown’s driver’s license, registration documents, and proof of insurance. Brown provided his driver’s license but did not have the remaining documents. Somers took the license and informed Brown that he was going to conduct a computer check but that Brown could leave if the check came back clean and no further problems arose. Somers then returned to his car. While radioing for the computer cheek, Somers’s sergeant asked if he intended to perform a K-9 free air sniff of the vehicle. Somers then remembered that, several months prior, he had been told that a K-9 officer should be summoned if Brown was pulled over during a traffic stop because Brown was the subject of an ongoing drug investigation. At this point, Somers radioed for additional officer assistance but did not conduct a K-9 open air sniff. He returned to Brown’s vehicle and asked Brown to exit the Jeep. Somers informed Brown that he was a narcotics officer and asked if there were drugs or weapons in the vehicle. Brown answered that there were not. Somers then twice asked for consent to search Brown’s vehicle. Brown refused both times. Somers continued to question Brown as two additional officers arrived to assist Somers, Josh Martin (“Martin”) and Dakota Cryer (“Cryer”). Cryer heard Somers ask for permission to search the car the third time. This time, Brown agreed to allow the search. Somers testified that the conversation in which he asked for Brown’s consent to search the vehicle lasted approximately sixty seconds.

After obtaining Brown’s consent, Som-ers then instructed Cole to exit the Jeep. When she exited the car, Somers leaned inside the vehicle and saw a small bag that contained a second, smaller bag — described as a small, blue, plastic ziptop bag — on the center hump between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat. The bag contained one rock of what appeared to be crack cocaine. The substance was subsequently tested and confirmed to be crack cocaine weighing 0.7 of a gram. Somers estimated that eight minutes elapsed from the time he pulled Brown over until the search of the vehicle was conducted.

After Somers found the substance, Martin and Cryer handcuffed Brown and Cole. Martin patted Brown down and found a folding knife and a second object, which Martin testified looked like a “prison shank,” in Brown’s waistband. After transporting Brown and Cole to the police station, Martin found a small bag of marijuana and rolling papers in the back of the police car on the side where Cole had been sitting. During a subsequent interrogation, Cole said that the cocaine found in the car belonged to her but misidentified the bag as being green rather than blue.

2. Search Warrant and Search of Residence

While on the scene of the traffic stop, Somers contacted Charlie Lopez (“Lo *275 pez”), who at the time was a narcotics agent with the Leesville Police Department. 1 Lopez was investigating Brown for his involvement in drug trafficking. On the morning after Brown’s arrest, Lopez prepared an affidavit for a search warrant for Brown’s residence, located at 1729 Nona Street (“Nona Street residence” or “residence”). In the affidavit, Lopez declared that:

On August 11, 2010 PFC Bryan Somers made a traffic stop on a 1986 Jeep Grand Cherokee_While making contact with the driver, identified as Casset-ti Brown, PFC Somers observed an open container of alcohol in the vehicle. PFC Somers asked Brown to step out of the vehicle with him where PFC Somers asked Brown if he had any narcotics or weapons in the vehicle. Brown gave PFC Somers verbal consent to search the vehicle. PFC Somers then had the passenger Taiwanna Cole exit the vehicle. As PFC Somers entered the vehicle to begin his search, he saw in plain view a clear plastic bag with a white substance believed to be crack cocaine located on the driver’s side of the center console area. PFC Somers continued to search the vehicle, but was unable to do a thorough search due to area of the traffic stop and having to transport Brown and Cole back to Leesville Police Department. Both Brown and Cole were transported to LPD in the same unit by P/O Joshua Martin and P/O Dakota Cryer. P/O Martin searched the back seat prior to placing Brown and Cole in the vehicle. During transport, both Cole and Brown were moving around in the back of the vehicle. After removing Brown and Cole from the vehicle, P/O Martin found a plastic bag containing marijuana in the back of his vehicle. Both Brown and Cole were booked into the Leesville City Jail on drug-related charges. Brown is currently on Federal Parole for drugrelated charges and has a lengthy criminal history for violent and drug-related charges. Brown has also been the target of an on-going investigation for the trafficking of narcotics during the past four months which included information of how Brown packaged narcotics for sell

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Bluebook (online)
567 F. App'x 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cassetti-brown-ca5-2014.