United States v. Claude Coleman

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided August 18, 2025·No. 23-3924·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 25a0403n.06

Case No. 23-3924

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

FILED

) Aug 18, 2025 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk )

Plaintiff-Appellee, )

) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED v. ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR ) THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CLAUDE COLEMAN, ) OHIO Defendant-Appellant. )

) OPINION

Before: SUTTON, Chief Judge; STRANCH and RITZ, Circuit Judges.

SUTTON, Chief Judge. Late on a May evening in Cleveland, officers approached a man drinking alcohol on a sidewalk in violation of the city’s open container law. He and one other man were directly next to a running car with two occupants. Several officers approached the four individuals and engaged with them. At the same time, Officer Friedrich Kaufmann peered into the window of the car and saw marijuana in an open backpack on the backseat. Officers arrested the driver, Claude Coleman, and discovered a firearm along with several types of drugs. Coleman argues that the district court should have suppressed the evidence found in the car because the police wrongfully seized him under the Fourth Amendment. He also challenges various evidentiary decisions made at trial along with his career offender designation at sentencing. We affirm.

I.

Just after midnight on May 22, 2021, officers from the Cleveland Police Department patrolled Gooding Avenue, a one-way street in the Fifth District of Cleveland. Officers drove the wrong way down the one-way street, hoping to catch potential wrongdoers off-guard. They spotted a man standing near a running parked car with an open container of alcohol, a violation of Cleveland’s municipal code. He and another individual were “milling around [the] parked vehicle.” R.168 at 28–29. The vehicle’s driver’s side window was open.

The officers parked in front of the running car, approached the two pedestrians on foot, and began to frisk them. Twenty seconds after parking, Officer Friedrich Kaufmann walked by the car, peered into the rear driver’s side window, and noticed an open backpack in the backseat with a jar of marijuana in it. While the other officers frisked the pedestrians on the sidewalk, Officer Kaufmann asked Coleman through his open driver’s side window: “What’s up bro? Hey, do me a favor. Step out for me. Put your hand right up on the—” Kaufmann Video at 0:01:04–:11. Coleman interrupted Kaufmann by opening his car door and sprinting away; the officers tackled and handcuffed him.

Officers walked back to Coleman’s car. Kaufmann told another officer that “there’s some s**t in this backpack right here. That’s what I was pulling him out for.” Kaufmann Video 0:02:45–:50. Police opened the back driver’s side door and found methamphetamine and two jars of marijuana in the open backpack. They also discovered a gun, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.

A grand jury indicted Coleman for two counts of drug trafficking, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)

and (b)(1)(C), possession of a firearm by a felon, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and use of a firearm during drug trafficking, id. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i). The district court denied Coleman’s motion to suppress the evidence taken from the car. Coleman went to trial, and a jury convicted him on all counts.

At sentencing, the district court treated Coleman as a career offender based on his prior Ohio aggravated robbery and drug trafficking convictions. See Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2911.01(A)(1), 2925.03(A)(2). The court calculated a Guidelines range of 360 months to life and sentenced him to 360 months.

On appeal, Coleman challenges the admission of the evidence seized from his car, several evidentiary decisions at trial, and his designation as a career offender at sentencing.

II.

Suppression motion. Did the police unlawfully seize Coleman under the Fourth Amendment when they pulled in front of his parked car? No.

In assessing the denial of a suppression motion, we give clear-error review to the district court’s factual findings and fresh review to its legal conclusions. United States v. Stevenson, 43 F.4th 641, 644 (6th Cir. 2022). We draw all evidentiary inferences in favor of the prevailing party below, in this instance the government. United States v. Pyles, 904 F.3d 422, 425 (6th Cir. 2018).

The Fourth Amendment guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const. amend. IV. All of the circumstances of a search—the “totality” of them, it’s often said—inform whether it is reasonable. Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 39 (1996). To arrest a suspect, officers must have probable cause to believe that the individual committed a crime. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91 (1964). To stop and frisk a suspect, officers must have reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20–22 (1968).

In addition, an officer may protect himself by temporarily detaining “innocent bystanders”

where “necessary to secure the scene of a valid search or arrest.” Bletz v. Gribble, 641 F.3d 743, 755 (6th Cir. 2011). That necessity-driven authority, however, does not amount to a free-ranging

license to seize the unsuspected and unsuspecting. The officer must act “out of a justifiable fear of personal safety,” and any detention must be “limited or routine.” Id. (quoting Ingram v. City of Columbus, 185 F.3d 579, 591–92 (6th Cir. 1999)). These parameters ensure that only the “exigencies of the situation”—a health emergency, the risk of evidence destruction, officer safety—make a limited seizure imperative. United States v. Johnson, No. 23-3099, 2024 WL 1956209, at *2 (6th Cir. May 3, 2024) (quoting McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 456 (1948)).

The “risk of harm to both the police and [others] is minimized” when officers take steps to secure the scene or otherwise take “command of the situation” while investigating criminal activity. Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 702–03 (1981). Hence, an officer who pulls a driver over for a traffic violation may ask the passengers to exit too. Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 413–15 (1997). Even though the passengers aren’t behind the wheel and even though a traffic violation rarely amounts to a violent crime, a brief detention prevents “sudden violence or frantic efforts to conceal” evidence. Id. at 414 (quotation omitted). An officer searching a home for an armed suspect likewise may detain its occupants to prevent flight and minimize other risks to officer safety. Muehler v. Mena, 544 U.S. 93, 98–99 (2005).

Even when officers justifiably fear for their safety, the detention of a bystander must be reasonable in scope and duration. Summers, 452 U.S. at 705 & n.21. An officer thus may not continue to detain innocent bystanders well after officers have secured the crime scene, Bletz, 641 F.3d at 755, and an officer may not handcuff the occupants of a home while arresting a suspect absent a sign of danger. Ingram, 185 F.3d at 592. But an officer searching a home may, by contrast, conduct a “routine detention” of its occupants. Summers, 452 U.S. at 705 n.21.

By these lights and under these circumstances, the officers justifiably detained Coleman.

The City of Cleveland bans people from possessing “opened container[s] of” “intoxicating liquor” in a public place. Cleveland Mun. Code. § 617.07(b)(3). When the officers pulled down Gooding Avenue, they “almost immediately” saw a man with an open container of alcohol standing next to Coleman’s car. That violation of a local law gave the police probable cause to seize him. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813, 819 (1996).

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