United States v. Garcia-Beltran

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedApril 5, 2006
Docket05-30434
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Garcia-Beltran (United States v. Garcia-Beltran) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Garcia-Beltran, (9th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 05-30434 Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  D.C. No. CR-01-00336-BR FILIMON GARCIA-BELTRAN, OPINION Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon Anna J. Brown, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted November 18, 2005* Portland, Oregon

Filed April 6, 2006

Before: Susan P. Graber and Johnnie B. Rawlinson, Circuit Judges, and S. James Otero,** District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Otero

*This panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). **The Honorable S. James Otero, United States District Judge for the Central District of California, sitting by designation.

3835 3838 UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN

COUNSEL

Stephen R. Sady, Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender, and Nancy S. Bergeson, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Port- land, Oregon, for the defendant-appellant.

Kent S. Robinson, Assistant United States Attorney, Portland, Oregon, for the plaintiff-appellee.

OPINION

OTERO, District Judge:

Defendant-appellant Filimon Garcia-Beltran appeals the district court’s grant of the government’s motion to require Garcia-Beltran to provide a pretrial fingerprint exemplar. The district court granted this motion after having first suppressed defendant’s fingerprint exemplars taken while defendant was in custody after an arrest lacking probable cause. The decision to suppress defendant’s fingerprints followed from the district court’s finding that the fingerprints had been taken for both investigative and identification purposes. The district court’s finding came at the direction of this court to hold an evidenti- ary hearing to determine the government’s purpose in taking the fingerprints. UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN 3839 Garcia-Beltran contends that the law of the case doctrine and the rule of mandate preclude the district court from grant- ing the motion to compel a new set of fingerprint exemplars. In addition, Garcia-Beltran asserts that, without an indepen- dent basis for fingerprinting, the evidence is subject to the exclusionary rule and, hence, cannot be used by the govern- ment at trial. We reject both arguments, and we affirm the dis- trict court’s ruling on the government’s motion to require Garcia-Beltran to provide a pretrial fingerprint exemplar.

I

The government charged defendant-appellant Filimon Garcia-Beltran with violating 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b)(2), illegal re-entry after deportation, and violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a), illegal reentry without inspection. Following his arraignment and plea of “Not Guilty,” Garcia-Beltran filed a Motion to Suppress certain evidence; he particularly objected to the use of fingerprint exemplars that had been taken of him following his arrest. The district court denied the motion. Thereafter, Garcia-Beltran entered a conditional guilty plea for violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), thereby preserving his right to appeal.

Garcia-Beltran appealed the district court’s denial of his Motion to Suppress. This court held that an evidentiary hear- ing was needed to determine if the fingerprints at issue in Garcia Beltran’s Motion to Suppress had been taken for investigative purposes or for identification purposes. We determined that fingerprints taken solely for investigative pur- poses must be suppressed, while those taken for identification purposes would not be suppressed. United States v. Garcia- Beltran, 389 F.3d 864, 865 (9th Cir. 2004). As a result of this court’s analysis, the district court’s judgment was vacated and the matter remanded for an evidentiary hearing.

As instructed by this court, the district court held an evi- dentiary hearing to determine the purposes for which Garcia- 3840 UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN Beltran was fingerprinted after his arrest. We rely on the fac- tual findings of the district court pursuant to this court’s remand order for our factual narrative, reviewing for clear error. United States v. Guzman-Bruno, 27 F.3d 420, 421 (9th Cir. 1994).

The exact circumstances prior to the arrest that occurred on August 14, 2001, are largely unimportant, as the government conceded that Garcia-Beltran was arrested without probable cause. However, there are a few noteworthy background facts pertaining to the circumstances immediately following the arrest. After his arrest, Garcia-Beltran produced a Resident Alien Card and a Mexican voting card in the name of “Jose Luis Garcia-Hernandez.” The arresting officer was suspicious of these documents and determined that they were forgeries. The officer issued defendant-appellant a “Uniform Criminal Citation” accusing him of “Forgery 2.” After issuing this cita- tion, the officer left Garcia-Beltran at the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC)1 for a “mug/print.” Garcia- Beltran’s true identity was yet unknown at this time.

The district court found that once Garcia-Beltran was at MCDC, another Portland police officer took the first of three sets of Garcia-Beltran’s fingerprints as part of the “mug/print” process. A records search that was conducted based on these fingerprints showed that defendant-appellant had previously been identified by the Portland Police Bureau as “Garcia, Fili- mon Beltran, DOB 112264” and by immigration authorities as “Garcia Beltran, Taurino.”

Once Garcia-Beltran was so identified and while he was still at MCDC, the Portland Police Bureau contacted federal immigration officials2 with a “Special Report.” The Special 1 The Multnomah County Detention Center is the county booking facil- ity and jail located in Portland, Oregon. 2 At the time of Garcia-Beltran’s arrest, the Immigration and Naturaliza- tion Service (INS) was the federal agency in charge of handling immigration-related offenses. The INS is now known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). UNITED STATES v. GARCIA-BELTRAN 3841 Report stated that defendant-appellant had been identified by fingerprint comparison as being the persons named above and was being detained. The report also contained Garcia- Beltran’s “A-File” number, tying him to his A-File. In response to the Special Report, immigration officials requested that a detainer be placed on Garcia-Beltran. Immi- gration officials also were alerted to Garcia-Beltran’s previ- ous charges of illegal entry and his deportation earlier that year.

The following day, Garcia-Beltran was fingerprinted again, this time by immigration authorities. This second set of fin- gerprints was compared to the fingerprint found on the War- rant of Deportation located in Garcia-Beltran’s A-File. Because this second set of fingerprints was later deemed inad- equate for identification purposes, Garcia-Beltran was finger- printed yet again, for the third and final time. This set of fingerprints was compared against the fingerprint on the War- rant of Deportation, and it was found that the prints matched.

Based on these findings of fact and concessions made by the government, the district court focused on Garcia-Beltran’s third set of fingerprints for the purposes of the remand order.

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