United States v. Forte

412 F. Supp. 2d 258, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3895, 2006 WL 232635
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 30, 2006
Docket6:05-cv-06066
StatusPublished

This text of 412 F. Supp. 2d 258 (United States v. Forte) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Forte, 412 F. Supp. 2d 258, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3895, 2006 WL 232635 (W.D.N.Y. 2006).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

SIRAGUSA, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

This matter is before the Court on the defendant’s motion to suppress tangible evidence. In that regard, an evidentiary hearing was held, at which one witness, Rochester Police Officer Carlos Santory, testified. Additionally, certain exhibits were received into evidence. The Court has now had a chance to consider both the testimony and exhibits. For the reasons discussed below, defendant’s application to suppress is denied.

FINDINGS OF FACT

On February 2, 2005, Officer Carlos Santory was employed by the City of Rochester Police Department as a uniformed road patrol officer and, as of that date, had been so employed for six years. On February 2, 2005, he was in fact working in a uniformed capacity. At approximately 6:30 p.m. on that date, Officer Santory was in his police vehicle in a parking lot at Dewey, and Lexington Avenues in the City of Rochester. At that time a male black citizen, who was approximately 35 to 40 years old, walked up to where Officer Santory was parked. . The male black was accompanied by his daughter, who appeared to be between four and six years old. Officer Santory did not get the man’s name. However, this individual informed Officer Santory that he had been driving and observed a group of male blacks arguing on Lexington Avenue. He also stated to Officer Santory that he had observed a male black who was part of the group waving a shotgun around, and that he was worried that someone was going to get shot or hurt. He further indicated to Officer Santory that he observed one of the' males, whom Officer Santory assumed was the male black who had been waving the gun, place the weapon in the trunk of an older model blue Nissan. The man speaking to Officer Santory pointed down Lexington Avenue in an easterly direction where he had made these observations. After speaking with this individual, Officer Santory proceeded east on Lexington Avenue in the direction that the man had pointed. Officer Santory also contacted the police dispatcher on his radio, to report a possible man with a gun in the area of Dewey and Lexington Avenues. Officer Santory drove down Lexington Avenue at approximately 30 to 45 miles per hour, covering a distance. of about a quarter mile, to the area of 263 Lexington Avenue. At this time, he observed a large group of blacks, about ten to fifteen people, mostly males, to his right on the south side of Lexington Avenue. As he approached, members of the group-started to leave and it appeared to Officer Santory that they were trying to get away. Officer Santory also noticed a vehicle in the driveway at 263 Lexington Avenue that generally fit the description of the vehicle provided by *260 the unidentified male black to whom he had just spoken. However, the vehicle was not an older model blue Nissan, but an older model blue Toyota Camry. Additionally, as he approached 263 Lexington Avenue, Officer Santory observed the defendant, a male black, about 15 feet from the vehicle walking from the front porch area of 263 Lexington Avenue toward the passenger side of the car. Officer Santory then watched as the defendant walked toward the rear of the vehicle. Officer Santory saw that the trunk of the Toyota was open, and he observed the defendant attempt to close it, but the trunk did not latch. Officer Santory continued to watch as the defendant walked around the back of the Toyota to the driver’s door, and observed the defendant get into the car and start the engine. About twenty seconds elapsed from the time Officer Santory arrived in the vicinity of 263 Lexington to the time that the defendant got into the Toyota and started it up. Officer Santory stopped his police vehicle and directed the defendant to shut the car off and get out of the car. Officer Santory then got out of his vehicle and approached the defendant. As Officer Santory did so, he had his hand on his service weapon, although he did not have it drawn. The defendant did as directed, turned the car engine off, and got out of the Toyota. Further, upon Officer Santory’s request, the defendant identified himself as Ralph Forte. Based upon the information Officer Santory had received concerning a firearm and based upon the fact that Officer Santory knew that the location where the encounter was occurring was a high crime area (about a week earlier Officer Santory himself had arrested somebody about a block away on a gun charge), he patted the defendant down to determine if he was armed with a gun. After determining that the defendant was unarmed, Officer Santory, who was alone at the time, placed him in the rear of his pólice vehicle. Officer Santory’s police vehicle had a cage between the front and the back seats and the rear doors could not be opened from inside the car. Officer Santory can not recall whether he handcuffed the defendant before placing him in the rear of his police vehicle, but he may well have. About the time he placed the defendant in the rear of his vehicle, Officer Santory was joined by two other members of the Rochester Police Department, a lieutenant and an officer. After the defendant was placed in the rear of his police vehicle, Officer Santory went to the rear of the Toyota to get the license number to determine who the owner was, so he could run a record check. When he did, Officer Santory observed that the trunk was almost completely open. He looked inside and saw, in plain- view, the rifle depicted in Exhibit No. 2 in evidence. At the time he made this observation, Officer Santory was aware of a City of Rochester ordinance that required stored firearms to be equipped with a trigger lock or to be kept in a lock box. The rifle in the Toyota’s trunk was not in compliance with this ordinance. However, while Officer Santory observed that the rifle neither had a trigger lock, nor was it in a lock box, the violation of the ordinance did not occur to him at the time of his observation and did not play a part in his initial detention and subsequent arrest of the defendant. Approximately a minute elapsed from the time that Officer Santory first encountered the defendant and told him to shut the car off until the time when Officer Santory observed the rifle in the trunk of the Toyota. After observing the rifle in the Toyota’s trunk, Officer Santory proceeded to conduct a record check on the defendant. He learned that the defendant had a criminal record and was in fact on parole. At that time, Officer Santory placed the defendant under arrest and transported him to the Rochester Public Safety Building. The amount of time that elapsed from the *261 point where Officer Santory placed the defendant in the rear of his police vehicle until he learned the defendant’s prior record was some time under twenty minutes.

ANALYSIS

The defendant contends that the firearm seized by Officer Santory on February 2, 2005 must be suppressed for two reasons. First, he argues that Officer Santory lacked reasonable suspicion to believe that he was involved in criminal activity, based upon “information he received from an anonymous tip provided by a person who approached the officer on the street,” which lacked any “indicia of reliability.” (Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant’s Suppression, December 30, 2005, pp. 2-3.) Therefore, the defendant maintains that his stop by Officer Santory was illegal at the outset. Second, the defendant contends that even if Officer Santory’s initial investigative stop was legal, his subsequent detention exceeded lawful parameters and amounted to arrest on less than probable cause.

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Bluebook (online)
412 F. Supp. 2d 258, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3895, 2006 WL 232635, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-forte-nywd-2006.