United States v. Garner

945 F. Supp. 990, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16709, 1996 WL 655571
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedOctober 31, 1996
DocketCriminal Action No. 7:95-CR-4-X
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 945 F. Supp. 990 (United States v. Garner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Garner, 945 F. Supp. 990, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16709, 1996 WL 655571 (N.D. Tex. 1996).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

KENDALL, District Judge.

Now before the Court is the Defendant Patrick Garner’s Motion to Suppress Evidence filed on November 24, 1995. An evidentiary hearing, briefing and oral argument were performed in this matter. This case raises substantial questions, issues and policy considerations of “federalism1 ” and the role of the federal judiciary in presiding over cases investigated and filed by state law enforcement officers which historically have been and should be prosecuted in state courts under state law, even where a federal statute creates concurrent federal jurisdiction 2. Despite this Court’s concern with the ever-burgeoning federal criminal docket and the practical effect of encouraging state law enforcement officials to run to the federal courts when their actions have violated a state, but not the federal constitution3, this Court has no choice but to follow prevailing Fifth Circuit law. Accordingly, after careful consideration of the motion, the filed materials and the applicable law, the Court determines that the motion must be, and is hereby, DENIED.

I. Factual Background

The Court enters the following findings of fact. The findings of fact are based upon the evidentiary hearing the Court held and the submissions of the parties.

On January 18, 1994, at approximately 10:00 a.m., Troopers Potts and Hooper of the Texas Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) received a call of a subject passed out in a Ford pickup with the motor running on Texas Highway 16, seven miles south of Graham, Young County, Texas. The troopers proceeded to the location indicated in the call. Upon arrival at the scene, the troopers observed Patrick Gamer standing at the rear of the pickup urinating.4 The troopers stopped their vehicle and Trooper Potts approached the defendant. Trooper Potts asked the defendant if everything was OK. After Garner replied he had just stopped to take a nap, [993]*993Trooper Potts asked him for some identification. Garner produced two Texas Driver’s licenses; one of the licenses had been altered by cutting off the picture5.

The trooper observed that Garner seemed disoriented and confused and asked Garner how much sleep he had gotten during the night. After Garner replied that he had gone to bed about midnight and gotten up about 7:30 a.m., Trooper Potts read Garner his rights and asked if he had any contraband or weapons in the car. Garner replied that he did not and that the troopers could look. Potts asked Gamer to sign a written consent to search form, but he refused saying that he would not sign anything to give up his rights.

Trooper Potts placed Garner under arrest for disorderly conduct and for altering his -drivers license. Trooper Potts asked Garner if Hooper could drive the vehicle in or if a wrecker should be called. Garner replied that Hooper could drive it. Garner was searched, handcuffed and taken to the Young County jail by Potts. Hooper followed in Garner’s truck.

Hooper conducted a routine inventory search of the vehicle while Potts booked Garner. Hooper came into the jail and informed Potts that he had found a small, black, leather-like bag in the front seat which contained a ziplock bag with a cream-colored substance in it. Potts and Hooper went out to the truck and examined the substance. Upon deciding that the substance appeared to be a controlled substance, Potts suggested stopping the inventory and calling the drug dog unit. Potts called Trooper Pellizzari, the DPS drug dog officer, and asked him to come to the Young County jail. Hooper moved the truck into a bay area until the drug dog arrived. Potts carried the small, leather type bag into the jail and asked Garner about it. Garner said he had never seen it before.

Some time later, Pellizzari arrived with the drug dog. He ran the dog around the outside of the vehicle and then put him inside the truck. Pellizzari -asked Potts to set the luggage in the pickup on the floor. Upon inspection of the luggage, the drug dog alerted on a black nylon bag. Potts opened the bag which the dog alerted on while Pellizzari watched. The bag contained a shoe box with a Sony video camera and three roEs of ziplock plastic bags, Precision electronic scales, articles of clothing and a clear plastic com tainer with two large bags of a substance appearing to be methamphetamine and several smaller bags of coffee. The officers completed the inventory of the vehicle and found a small green tablet and a glass pipe containing some type of residue. Potts went back into the jail and informed Garner he would be charged with Aggravated Possession of a Controlled Substance6. The defendant was arrested for this offense on January 18, 1994. He was indicted in state court- on February 24, 1994. The case sat on the docket of the 90th Judicial District Court of Young County for 13 months. After the defendant was charged in federal court (some 14 months after the arrest) by way of the March 7, 1996, indictment, the state action was dismissed on a motion by the State on March. 30, 1995. The state constitutional search issue raised in this ease was not Htigated during the 13 months the case was pending in state court.

II. Federal Law or State Law

The defendant argues'in his motion to suppress and his brief that this Court must apply Texas law in deciding the motion to suppress. However, the Fifth Circuit, joining every other circuit in the country, has addressed and rejected that argument. In United States v. Walker, the Fifth Circuit stated:

[T]he proper' inquiry in determining whether to exclude the evidence at issue is not whether the state officials’ actions were “lawful” or “vaHd under state law.” The question that a federal court must ask when evidence is secured by state officials to be used as evidence against a defendant accused of a federal offense is whether the [994]*994actions of the state official in securing the evidence violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

960 F.2d 409, 415 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 967, 113 S.Ct. 443, 121 L.Ed.2d 362 (1992). The reasoning behind this statement of the law is that the exclusionary rule only requires evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment to be excluded. Id. Additionally, the exclusionary rule’s purpose is to discourage violations of the Fourth Amendment, not violations of state law. Id. citing Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961); Weeks v. United States 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914).

In support of the argument that state law should be applied and that the Fifth Circuit supports this position, Garner cites United States v. Rice, 652 F.2d 521 (5th Cir.1981). In that ease, the defendant was convicted of possession of counterfeit bills and conspiracy to pass counterfeit bills. On appeal, Rice challenged the validity of his arrest and the search subsequent to the arrest. In effect, Rice challenged the items found in the search after his arrest as “fruit of the poisonous tree.” See Wong Sun v. United States,

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162 F. Supp. 2d 582 (N.D. Texas, 2001)

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Bluebook (online)
945 F. Supp. 990, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16709, 1996 WL 655571, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-garner-txnd-1996.