United States v. Ghali

317 F. Supp. 2d 708, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29752, 2004 WL 1054963
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedApril 2, 2004
Docket3:03-cv-00212
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 317 F. Supp. 2d 708 (United States v. Ghali) 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. Ghali, 317 F. Supp. 2d 708, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29752, 2004 WL 1054963 (N.D. Tex. 2004).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

LYNN, District Judge.

On March 16, 2004, and continuing during trial, at which the Defendant Mohammed Ghali and the Government waived their right to trial by jury, under Fed. R. Cr. P. 23, the Court heard testimony and argument on a Motion to Suppress filed by Defendant Mohammed Ghali. The Court finds that Defendant has standing to challenge the Government’s warrantless searches. However, because the Court finds that the Government would have inevitably discovered the contested evidence and that the addressee of the shipments at issue impliedly consented to the Government’s searches, Defendant’s Motion to Suppress is DENIED.

BACKGROUND

On December 17, 2003, Defendant Mohammed Ghali was indicted on multiple counts related to an alleged conspiracy between Defendant and others involving the receipt, sale, and interstate transportation of stolen goods. Defendant’s Motion to Suppress is directed to warrantless searches conducted in early 2003 by the Government at a Federal Express (“FedEx”) facility in Irving, Texas, of packages sent by Sunshine Wholesale. Sunshine Wholesale is an unincorporated business enterprise for which Defendant’s wife, Ste *711 phanie Ghali, paid taxes and filed doing business certificates, but Defendant apparently managed the business.

The May 2003 affidavit of Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Scott Springer, and live testimony and evidence establish the following. From late January through March 24, 2003, FedEx employees at the Irving, Texas facility contacted the U.S. Customs Service regarding packages that had been dropped off at FedEx by individuals employed by Sunshine Wholesale. 1 The packages were to be shipped to Power Supply and E-Medico, companies owned by Mireo Vietti in Pompano Beach, Florida. Vietti paid the freight costs for some of the shipments. The Government maintains that Vietti was cooperating with the Government at all times relevant to this case. The FedEx employees did not open any of the packages.

On at least five occasions from late January through March 24, 2003, U.S. Customs Service 2 agents, and a Fort Worth police officer working as part of a federal task force, visited the FedEx facility and, along with FedEx employees, conducted a search of the packages from Sunshine Wholesale. The searches were conducted without warrants. Agent Springer testified that he did not believe warrants were necessary, and FedEx was also of that view. The federal and state officials opened the packages and discovered in the shipments products that had been previously marked, represented as stolen, and sold to members of the alleged conspiracy by government operatives. The agents did not seize the shipments at that time; rather, they resealed the packages and allowed them to be shipped to Vietti. With Vietti’s specific consent, the Government seized the shipments after they were delivered to Vietti.

Defendant moves to suppress the evidence obtained during the Government’s searches of the FedEx shipments on the grounds that the searches violated the Fourth Amendment because they were conducted without warrants and without probable cause. The Government counters that Defendant lacks standing to challenge the constitutionality of the searches. Alternatively, the Government argues that even if Defendant had standing, the searches were constitutional because (a) FedEx possessed a right of inspection, which it either delegated to the Government agents or which permitted FedEx to consent, as it did, to the Government’s searches; (b) the Government would have inevitably discovered the evidence; and (c) Vietti impliedly consented to the searches.

ANALYSIS

A. Standing:

The Government contends that Defendant lacks standing to challenge the constitutionality of the searches of Sunshine Wholesale’s shipments through FedEx.

The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures that intrude on reasonable *712 expectations of privacy. Warrantless searches are presumptively unreasonable. U.S. v. Villarreal, 963 F.2d 770, 773 (5th Cir.1992) (citing Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990)). However, a defendant may not claim rights under the Fourth Amendment vicariously; rather, the defendant bears the burden of establishing his standing to challenge a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 130 n. 1, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). In order to establish standing, the defendant must show that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the object searched or seized. Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98, 104, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 65 L.Ed.2d 633 (1980). The Fifth Circuit has explained:

Individuals do not surrender their expectations of privacy in closed containers when they send them by mail or common carrier. The Supreme Court has long recognized that “[l]etters and other sealed packages are in the general class of effects in which the public at large has a legitimate expectation of privacy.” United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 1657, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984); United States v. Van Leeuwen, 397 U.S. 249, 251, 90 S.Ct. 1029, 1031, 25 L.Ed.2d 282 (1970); Ex Parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733, 24 L.Ed. 877 (1877). Both senders and addressees of packages or other closed containers can reasonably expect that the government will not open them. Villarreal, 963 F.2d at 774-75.

In Villarreal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s granting the defendants’ motion to suppress. U.S. Customs agents obtained the evidence during a search conducted after common carrier employees contacted Customs agents about two suspicious fifty-five gallon drums. After being charged with possessing and conspiring to distribute marijuana seized during the search, the intended recipients of the fifty-five gallon drums moved to suppress the evidence. The Government argued that the intended recipients did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the drums. Relying on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Jacobsen and Ex Parte Jackson, the Fifth Circuit stated, “The drum opened by the customs agent in this case was a closed container sent by a common carrier in which the sender and addressee had a reasonable expectation of privacy,” and held that the defendants, as addressees, had a reasonable- expectation of privacy in the shipments. Id. at 774.

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Bluebook (online)
317 F. Supp. 2d 708, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29752, 2004 WL 1054963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ghali-txnd-2004.