United States v. Freeman

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 23, 2000
Docket98-6636
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Freeman (United States v. Freeman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Freeman, (6th Cir. 2000).

Opinion

RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit Rule 206 ELECTRONIC CITATION: 2000 FED App. 0102P (6th Cir.) File Name: 00a0102p.06

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT _________________

;  UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  Plaintiff-Appellee,   Nos. 98-6636/6637 v.  > LANCE M. FREEMAN    (98-6636), DONALD W.

Defendants-Appellants.  ADAMS (98-6637),  1 Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee at Memphis. No. 97-20138—Julia S. Gibbons, Chief District Judge. Argued and Submitted: December 16, 1999 Decided and Filed: March 23, 2000 Before: MARTIN, Chief Judge; CLAY,* Circuit Judge; WEBER, District Judge.

* The Honorable Herman J. Weber, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, sitting by designation.

1 2 United States v. Freeman, et al. Nos. 98-6636/6637 Nos. 98-6636/6637 United States v. Freeman, et al. 15

_________________ appear to be alive and well to the extent that these drug interdiction officers are stopping target vehicles based upon COUNSEL subjective application of laws such as not driving “as practicable as possible,” in order to gain suspicion to search ARGUED: April R. Ferguson, OFFICE OF THE for narcotics. See id. at 556-62. Such stops and searches, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER FOR THE WESTERN whether done under the guise of a vehicle checkpoint or a DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE, Memphis, Tennessee, for traffic stop, fail constitutional muster. Appellant in 98-6636. ON BRIEF: April R. Ferguson, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER FOR D. Conclusion THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE, Memphis, Tennessee, E. E. Edwards III, EDWARDS, SIMMONS & While I have focused on what may appear to be the tactics OLIVER, Nashville, Tennessee, Wesley M. Oliver, TULANE of the drug interdiction officers in Shelby County based upon LAW SCHOOL, New Orleans, Louisiana, for Appellants. the cases reaching our Court from this area, cases have also Paul M. O’Brien, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES appeared from other areas within this Circuit in which ATTORNEY, Memphis, Tennessee, for Appellee. challenges to stops and searches are based on similar factual scenarios. See, e.g., United States v. Akram, 165 F.3d 452 MARTIN, C. J., delivered the opinion of the court, in (6th Cir. 1999). The officers of Shelby County, Tennessee, which WEBER, D. J., joined. CLAY, J. (pp. 6-15), delivered and drug interdiction officers everywhere in this Circuit a separate concurring opinion. should understand that they are not to abuse the authority provided to them to under Whren and Ferguson. Although _________________ illegal narcotics have a widespread and devastating effect on our country, the answer in controlling drug use does not lie in OPINION sacrificing our precious Fourth Amendment constitutional _________________ guarantees. The result of overzealous or even arrogant police conduct that rises to the level of a Fourth Amendment BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Chief Judge. Donald W. Adams violation may be counterproductive where those individuals and Lance M. Freeman seek review of the district court’s actually transporting illicit narcotics may have the evidence order denying their motions to suppress evidence seized recovered against them suppressed – and charges during an atypical traffic stop. The issue is whether the police subsequently dismissed – as a result of an illegal stop. had probable cause to stop and search the vehicle driven by Adams and Freeman. Because we find that the police did not have probable cause, we reverse and direct that the evidence be suppressed. On the July 4, 1997 holiday, Memphis Police Officer David Tate stopped a motor home traveling eastbound on heavily traveled Interstate Forty for violating Section 55-8-123 of the Tennessee Code, after he allegedly observed the vehicle cross the white line separating the emergency lane from the right- hand lane of traffic for an estimated twenty to thirty feet. Section 55-8-123 provides that a vehicle “shall be driven as 14 United States v. Freeman, et al. Nos. 98-6636/6637 Nos. 98-6636/6637 United States v. Freeman, et al. 3

occurred in the same area, we specifically expressed our nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane.” Adams concern over the potential for abuse as it relates to “target” was the driver of the motor home and Freeman was the only vehicles such as U-Hauls. See 195 F.3d at 265-67 (citing passenger. Officer Tate and Officer Michael McCord, who United States v. Akram, 165 F.3d at 460 (Guy, J., dissenting)). arrived on the scene shortly after the initial stop, requested registration and identification, which Adams and Freeman Based upon the stream of cases reaching this Court since produced. The officers then asked if there were any drugs or Mesa, in which the defendants have specifically challenged weapons in the vehicle. After Adams stated that there were the search of their vehicles subsequent to a traffic stop along no drugs or weapons, Officer Tate asked for permission to Interstate 40 near Memphis, it appears that sheriffs of drug “look around,” which Adams reluctantly granted. Without interdiction units in this area may be doing precisely what anything further, the officers proceeded with a search of every Mesa cautioned against – using the authority vested in them compartment of the motor home, where they did in fact find under Whren and Ferguson as carte blanche to conduct marijuana hidden in several compartments. “fishing expeditions” to search for contraband, particularly when a “target” vehicle such as a van, motor home, U-Haul, Freeman and Adams filed motions to suppress the evidence truck, or 2automobile with an out-of-state license plate is found in the search of their motor home, alleging that Officer involved. See Mesa, 62 F.3d at 162-63; see also Hill, 195 Tate lacked probable cause to stop the vehicle and that, even F.3d at 266. if the stop was lawful, the search was beyond the scope of the initial stop and there was no waiver. The magistrate, whose It also appears that, in effect, some of these officers may be report was adopted by the district court, concluded that the attempting to use the authority vested in them by Whren and stop was justified because the motor home’s partial entry into Ferguson to accomplish what this Court found to be an the emergency lane constituted probable cause that either a unconstitutional practice by the State of Tennessee in United traffic violation had occurred or that the driver was States v. Huguenin, 154 F.3d 547 (6th Cir. 1998). In other intoxicated. The district court then denied the motions to words, the Tennessee vehicle checkpoints we found suppress the evidence from the search. Freeman and Adams unconstitutional in Huguenin on the basis that they were pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana in being operated not to detect intoxicated drivers, but as a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2, pretext to stop drivers who had violated no traffic laws in reserving the right to revoke their pleas should this Court order to gain reasonable suspicion to search for narcotics, reverse the district court and suppress the evidence discovered during the search.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Byars v. United States
273 U.S. 28 (Supreme Court, 1927)
Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Delaware v. Prouse
440 U.S. 648 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Whren v. United States
517 U.S. 806 (Supreme Court, 1996)
United States v. Michael Lyons
7 F.3d 973 (Tenth Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Cecil Ferguson
8 F.3d 385 (Sixth Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Harvey Barnes
19 F.3d 19 (Sixth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Gina Mesa
62 F.3d 159 (Sixth Circuit, 1995)
United States v. Paul Charleston Gregory
79 F.3d 973 (Tenth Circuit, 1996)
United States v. James Erwin, Jr.
155 F.3d 818 (Sixth Circuit, 1998)
United States v. Richard Allen Lumpkin
159 F.3d 983 (Sixth Circuit, 1998)
United States v. Abdur-Raheem Akram
165 F.3d 452 (Sixth Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Bert Alvin Wellman, Jr.
185 F.3d 651 (Sixth Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Anderson
42 F. Supp. 2d 713 (E.D. Michigan, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
United States v. Freeman, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-freeman-ca6-2000.