United States v. Cruz

838 F. Supp. 535, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16685, 1993 WL 490970
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedNovember 22, 1993
Docket2:93-cv-00137
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 838 F. Supp. 535 (United States v. Cruz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Cruz, 838 F. Supp. 535, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16685, 1993 WL 490970 (D. Utah 1993).

Opinion

ORDER

BENSON, District Judge.

This is before the court on the defendant’s Objection to the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation. The defendant objects to the Magistrate Judge’s denial of his Motion to Suppress Evidence resulting from the search of his home.

The court having reviewed the file including the briefing filed in support of and in opposition to the Motion to Suppress, the Objection to the Report and Recommendation, and the transcript of the hearing on the Motion to Suppress, and having reviewed de novo the Report and Recommendation of the Magistrate Judge, finds that the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation is supported by the facts and the law. *537 The court adopts the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation. The Motion to Suppress is DENIED.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED.

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

BOYCE, United States Magistrate Judge.

The defendant, Manuel Cruz, made a motion to suppress evidence seized by police from his premises on the grounds the evidence was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment (File Entry 11). A memorandum was submitted by Cruz in support of the motion. The government made a response (File Entry 13) and filed a more formal memorandum. Also, at issue in the case, at the time of the hearing on the motion, was whether a statement made by the defendant was taken in violation of his Miranda 1 rights. Hearing was held on the motion on August 19, 1993. On August 27, 1993 the government filed an additional memorandum (File Entry 19). The defendant submitted a post hearing memorandum (File Entry 21).

A hearing on the motion to suppress was held on August 19,1993. The case has been referred to the magistrate judge under 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B). This report and recommendation is submitted pursuant to the reference on the defendant’s motion to suppress.

Tracy Harper, a West Valley City, Utah police officer with the Metro Narcotics Strike Force, testified that on April 15,1993 he was involved in the search of a residence at 516 Leona Lane in Murray, Utah. The residence was that of the defendant Cruz. The officer went to the residence to serve an arrest warrant on Cruz for distribution of cocaine (Tr. p. 7). Sergeant Brad Blair was with Harper along with officers Metcalf and Snyder. Harper and Blair went to the front door. The two other officers were to the rear of the premises.

The officer knocked on the door and spoke to a white male, Ian Martin, who answered the door. Harper asked if Manuel [defendant] was there (Tr. p. 8). Martin said Manuel Cruz was there. The officers were dressed in tank tops and shorts. Harper said they were neighbors and Martin yelled up the stairs to Manuel that “your neighbors want to talk to you.” (Id.). Defendant yelled back to “tell them I’m busy.” At that point the officer showed Martin a badge and said they needed to talk to Manuel (Tr. pp. 8-9). Martin ran up the stairs and came down the stairs first. A few minutes later defendant Cruz came down the stairs (Tr. p. 9). The arrest warrant was never served because the officers suspected drugs were in the residence and the arrest warrant would only authorize the defendant’s arrest. The officers decided to do a “knock and talk.” 2 This is a noncustodial procedure where the officer identifies himself and asks to talk to the home occupant and then eventually requests permission to search the residence (Tr. p. 9).

Before defendant came to the door the officer noticed others in the downstairs livingroom. When defendant came to the doorway the officer introduced himself. The officers were outside the doorway (Tr. p. 10). Harper said the officers were with Metro Narcotics and that they didn’t necessarily want to talk in front of defendant’s company. The people in the living room immediately stood up, said “that’s fine, we’ll leave.” They were not asked to leave but they left immediately by the back door (Tr. pp. 10-11). After the guests left, Harper asked defendant if the officers could talk to him in his living room area. Defendant invited the officers in and down to the livingroom (Tr. p. 11). The officer asked defendant if he had heard of the President’s “war on drugs” and defendant said he had not. Harper asked defendant if he used .drugs and defendant said no. The officer asked if he had drugs in the home and defendant said no. The officer said “then you wouldn’t mind if we searched the home.” The defendant replied “no, not at all” (Tr. p. 12). The conversation was in English (Id.). There was no indication the defendant did not understand what was requested or what was being said (Tr. p. 13). Harper said that in order to search the home he would have to *538 stay with the defendant and he would have a couple of other officers assist with the search. Sergeant Blair asked the other officers, who were outside at the rear of the house, to come in. These were detectives Metcalf and Snyder of Metro Narcotics (Id. p. 13). Defendant was not handcuffed, threatened, or told he would be arrested. The arrest warrant for the defendant was never shown to him (Tr. p. 14). At that point, detective Metcalf asked defendant if it was okay to search and defendant replied “yeah, no problem” (Tr. p. 14). Defendant never objected to the search and spoke to Metcalf in English. While the other detectives searched, Harper talked to defendant. The conversation was in English (Tr. p. 15). The search lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes before drugs and weapons were found, thereafter, a much longer search for about two hours occurred (Tr. p. 16). Other drugs were found.

After awhile, Harper conducted a tape recorded interview with the defendant (Id.). At some point during the interview, defendant was handcuffed because guns had been found in the residence (Tr. p. 17). After some initial small talk, the defendant was given a Miranda warning (Tr. p. 18). A transcript of the conversation (Def. Exh. B) reflects the- warning was as follows (Def. Exh. A):

Harper: Are you aware of your Miranda? Do you know what Miranda is? Miranda rights, your rights? You heard ’um read ’um maybe on T.V. when someone says, You have the right to remain silent?
Cruz: Mm-mm.
Harper: You have the right to an attorney. If you can’t afford an attorney, we will appoint an attorney for you.
Cruz: Yeah.
Harper: You have that right before any type of questioning.
Cruz: Mm-mm.
Harper: After you’ve been formally charged. Now, I’ve explained to you what your charges are going to be on this case for the cocaine, for the weapons, distribution type cocaine case. Uhm, and it, with me explaining your rights, and having your rights in mind, do you want to talk to me about this?
Cruz: Now, what do you mean, I wanna talk to ya?

The interview was in English (Tr. p. 18) The officers did not have a search warrant for the premises.

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Bluebook (online)
838 F. Supp. 535, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16685, 1993 WL 490970, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-cruz-utd-1993.