United States v. Cline

229 F. Supp. 3d 691, 2017 WL 218805, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6778
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 18, 2017
DocketNo.: 3:14-CR-160-TAV-CCS
StatusPublished

This text of 229 F. Supp. 3d 691 (United States v. Cline) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Cline, 229 F. Supp. 3d 691, 2017 WL 218805, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6778 (E.D. Tenn. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Thomas A. Varían, CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This criminal action is before the Court on the Report and Recommendation of [695]*695Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley, Jr., entered on December 14, 2016 [Doc. 67] (the “R & R”), which addresses the defendant’s motions to suppress [Docs. 35, 59] and motion to dismiss the superseding indictment [Doc. 43]. After consideration of the defendant’s motions, Judge Shirley recommends that the defendant’s motions to suppress [Docs. 35, 59] be granted in part and denied in part, in that the firearm seized from the defendant’s van should be suppressed. Judge Shirley also recommends that the defendant’s motion to dismiss the indictment [Doc. 43] be denied. The defendant filed an objection to the R & R [Doc. 68]. The government also filed an objection [Doc. 70], to which the defendant responded [Doc. 71].

I. Background

The Court presumes familiarity with the R & R in this case, but for purposes of background, includes the following findings of fact as articulated in the R & R:1

In the month or weeks leading up to Thanksgiving 2013, [Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (“TWRA”) ] wildlife officers received several complaints of illegal hunting from landowners on Man-nis Road in Monroe County, Tennessee. Specifically, they received complaints of individuals hunting from the road. Wildlife Officers Kip Kite and Joe Pike decided to conduct a deer decoy operation on Thanksgiving Day, which is a popular day to hunt, in order to catch the individuals hunting from the road. In preparation for the deer decoy operation, Officers Kite and Pike scouted a location on Mannis Road that was located away from houses and contained a field and brush on the edge of woods, which is an environment where deer are likely to be found. Officer Kite contacted Ms. Sondra Strickland, who owned the property upon which he sought to locate the decoy deer. Ms. Strickland, who had inherited the property on Mannis Road and who lived in Murfreesboro, had complained of people hunting on her property and agreed to the request. Unbeknownst to Officer Kite, Ms. Strickland’s property abutted the property of Mr. John Ruggiero, who owned the field between Mannis Road and the site where the decoy deer was placed. Mr. Ruggie-ro’s field contained a driveway with a gate. The TWRA officers did not contact Mr. Ruggiero about the placement of a decoy deer.
On the morning of November 28, Thanksgiving Day, 2013, Officer Kip Kite placed the decoy deer in the brush at the edge of a field on Mannis Road. The decoy deer could be seen by persons driving north on Mannis Road but not by those driving south. Officer Kite and Officer Lee hid on an embankment eight to ten feet from the road to observe and record any violators. Officer Pike was stationed in a vehicle on one end of Mannis Road, and Sergeant Ben Davis and Officer Gray waited in their vehicle on the other end of Mannis Road. The officers in vehicles were responsible for stopping violators fleeing the scene of the decoy deer.
Between 9:45 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., an individual wearing camouflage and driving a silver minivan traveled past the location of the deer decoy and continued north on Mannis Road, without stopping or braking. Approximately thirty minutes later, William Frank, driving a purple Toyota pickup truck and traveling south on Mannis road, pulled into the driveway across from the decoy and [696]*696stopped in front of the gate. Within thirty seconds, the Defendant, driving a silver minivan and also traveling south on Mannis Road, pulled onto the side of the road, blocking in the truck. Frank got out of the truck and shot in the direction of the decoy. The Court finds that the Defendant did not fire a shot at the decoy deer. Frank then jumped back in his truck. The Defendant drove the minivan forward a short distance to allow Frank to back the truck out of the driveway. Frank paused briefly beside the Defendant’s minivan, before driving south on Mannis Road. The Defendant then drove south on Mannis Road, following the truck.
Officer Kite radioed that the driver of the truck had shot at the decoy and that the truck and minivan were fleeing in Officer Pike’s his direction. Officer Kite directed the other officers to stop both vehicles because they were working together.
Officer Pike activated his siren and blue lights and stopped the truck at the top of a hill. The minivan, driven by Defendant Cline, then began backing rapidly down the hill. Sergeant Davis, also traveling south on Mannis Road, saw the minivan backing down the hill and activated his lights and siren. The Defendant, who appeared to be leaning toward the center of the van, backed into a driveway and stopped. Sergeant Davis got out, walked toward the Defendant, and twice ordered him to raise his hands. The Defendant complied, after the second command. Sergeant Davis removed the Defendant from the minivan and frisked him. While frisking the Defendant, Sergeant Davis looked through the side window and saw the muzzle of a rifle, which was partially covered by a camouflage jacket, protruding from between the driver’s and passenger’s seats. Sergeant Davis removed a .270 round from the Defendant’s front pants pocket and placed it on the driver’s seat. Sergeant Davis then leaned into the van, removed the rifle, unloaded three .270 rounds from the rifle, and placed the rifle in his vehicle. The Court finds that Sergeant Davis took the rifle out of the minivan because he believed it was associated with deer hunting, which was the crime he was investigating. However, the Court also finds that Officer Kite radioed Sergeant Davis and Officer Pike that the shooter was in the truck and that Sergeant Davis admitted that Officer Kite did not tell him that the driver of the minivan had shot at the decoy, had a weapon, or had done anything other than be present at the scene.
Sergeant Davis asked the Defendant to identify himself and what he was doing. The Defendant said the rifle did not belong to him, but instead belonged to Donna Frank. The Defendant told Sergeant Davis that he had been hunting with a muzzleloader earlier that day, but had taken the muzzleloader home. A records check of the van’s license tag revealed that the van was registered to Donna Frank. Officer Pike wrote citations for both the Defendant and the driver of the truck for illegal hunting, and they were permitted to leave.
In the week following November 28, 2018, Special [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (“ATF”) ] Agent Lamar “Marty” English, who was investigating the Defendant for an unrelated matter, learned of the hunting citation and asked Sergeant Davis and Officers Kite and Pike to prepare statements detailing their involvement in the stop of the Defendant and seizure of the rifle. The three TWRA officers created these statements on computers, printed them without saving them, and then delivered them to Agent English either directly or through Sergeant Davis. None of the three TWRA officers re[697]*697tained a copy of his statement. After the statements were created and printed, the TWRA replaced the officers’ computers without transferring any data from the old computers. In the spring of 2016, while preparing for trial, the TWRA officers told the prosecutor about the written statements.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
229 F. Supp. 3d 691, 2017 WL 218805, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6778, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cline-tned-2017.