United States v. Dessesaure

429 F.3d 359, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 26057, 2005 WL 3193728
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedNovember 30, 2005
Docket04-2170
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 429 F.3d 359 (United States v. Dessesaure) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First 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. Dessesaure, 429 F.3d 359, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 26057, 2005 WL 3193728 (1st Cir. 2005).

Opinion

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

The prosecution takes this interlocutory appeal, under 18 U.S.C. § 3731, from the district court’s partial allowance of the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence and denial of the prosecution’s motion for reconsideration. United States v. Dessesaure (Dessesaure I), 314 F.Supp.2d 81 (D.Mass.2004); United States v. Dessesaure (Dessesaure II), 323 F.Supp.2d 211 (D.Mass.2004).

In sum, the district court suppressed evidence seized from Earl Dessesaure’s apartment (consisting of heroin, drug paraphernalia, a gun, and bullets) pursuant to a warrant because the warrant affidavit contained information that the police observed when they earlier illegally entered the apartment to “freeze” it and because of material misstatements in that affidavit. Accepting as accurate these factual conclusions, we nonetheless disagree with the trial court’s ultimate conclusion that suppression was required. Rather, we find that, even after striking the offending material from the warrant, there was adequate basis for a probable cause determination and the officers would have sought a warrant regardless. We reverse.

I.

For our purposes, a greatly streamlined version of the facts taken from the suppression hearing, geared to the issues described above, is all that is necessary.

The investigation of Dessesaure began when Officer John Broderick, Jr. received information from “different sources” that Dessesaure was selling heroin out of a maroon Cadillac Escalade with a particular license plate. 1 Dessesaure I, 314 F.Supp.2d at 83. The license plate number given by the sources matched that of a maroon Cadillac Escalade registered to Dessesaure at an address in Quincy, Massachusetts.

In the early hours of February 24, 2003, police began surveillance on the Quincy apartment. Id. at 86. At 9:00 a.m., Officer Paul Quinn observed Dessesaure leave the Quincy apartment and throw a trash bag in a dumpster before he drove off. Id. Quinn recovered the trash bag and found a “residue of an unknown powder substance” and a utility bill with Dessesaure’s name and the address of the Quincy apartment. The residue was not field tested to confirm that it was heroin. Id. Officers followed Dessesaure in his Escalade to a home in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood and saw Dessesaure enter, carrying a black shoulder bag. Id. He emerged two minutes later, as did his girlfriend, Tina Tate. Id. at 86-87. The police followed Desses-aure to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where Tate went in and returned ten min *362 utes later. Id. at 87. The police then lost surveillance for some time. When they reestablished contact with the car again at approximately 11:15 a.m., Dessesaure and Tate were returning to Quincy. Id. Dessesaure made a number of evasive maneuvers as he drove and did not take the most direct route back to the Quincy apartment. Id. Officer Broderick testified that such driving is often employed by drug traffickers to see if they are being followed by law enforcement officers. 2 Id.

Dessesaure and Tate returned to the Quincy apartment. Approximately 20 minutes later, Dessesaure left alone and drove into Boston, followed by the officers. Id. Once in Boston, Dessesaure pulled his Es-calade over on a street in the South End and picked up a man, Nelson Boyd. Dess-esaure drove Boyd for a few blocks and stopped. Id. Boyd got out of the car and Dessesaure drove away. Police officers, including Broderick, stopped Boyd and searched him, recovering a plastic bag they supposed, based on their experience, contained heroin. Id. Boyd lied, telling officers that he had never even been in the Escalade. As to whether Boyd acquired the heroin while in Dessesaure’s car, Officer Juan Seoane, who, along with Broder-ick, had been following Dessesaure before Dessesaure picked up Boyd, testified that Boyd did not appear to be carrying anything when he entered the vehicle. Id. However, Seoane also testified that he could not see an exchange being made while Boyd was in the Escalade. The district court noted that “the bag was small and would not necessarily have been apparent to the surveilling officers.” Id.

While Broderick remained behind with Boyd, other officers, including Officer Seoane, continued to follow the Escalade. Dessesaure drove erratically after dropping Boyd off. Id. Seoane testified that, based on his experience, Dessesaure’s driving was consistent with that of drug dealers who, after conducting a drug sale, attempt to make sure that they are not being followed. Id. Once the officers following Dessesaure were informed that heroin had been found on Boyd, they pulled over the Escalade. While the officers obtained no contraband from a pat-frisk of Dessesaure and a search of the car, Seoane noted that Dessesaure’s pants zipper was open and his shirt was pulled out through his fly. Id. Seoane testified that in his experience, it was common for a drug dealer to hide his wares in his rectum to avoid detection. Id. at 87-88. The implication was that Dessesaure had put drugs in his rectum at home and just had retrieved a bag to sell to Boyd. Dessesaure was arrested on the street by Officer Seoane. Id.

Officers took Dessesaure to the station house to be booked; Seoane followed them in Dessesaure’s car. Broderick arrived a short time later. Broderick questioned Dessesaure at the booking desk. Both Broderick and Dessesaure testified that Broderick told Dessesaure he was going to get a warrant to search the Quincy apartment. When Broderick asked Dessesaure where he lived, Dessesaure replied that he lived in Roxbury. That was not true; he lived in Quincy. Broderick testified that he warned Dessesaure at the booking desk that if heroin was found in his apartment, his girlfriend could be charged. Broderick stated that Dessesaure then informed him of the location of the heroin in the Quincy apartment, with the hope that his girl *363 friend would not be charged. Id. at 89. Dessesaure denied ever making these statements. The district court noted that Broderick could not satisfactorily explain why these statements were not recorded in any way, and thus gave “no credit to Bro-derick’s claims that defendant made statements about drugs in his apartment.” 3 Id. After questioning Dessesaure, Broder-ick and other officers took Dessesaure’s keys and proceeded to the Quincy apartment for the purpose of “freezing” it on Broderick’s way to get a warrant. Id. The goal of a “freeze,” it seems, is to secure a location to prevent its occupants from destroying evidence while a search warrant is being obtained.

From the record, the government suggests to us and the district court that Broderick thought he could enter the apartment to “freeze it” absent exigent circumstances based on vague and broad language in a state court opinion.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
429 F.3d 359, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 26057, 2005 WL 3193728, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dessesaure-ca1-2005.