United States v. Harger

313 F. Supp. 3d 1082
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJune 27, 2018
DocketCase No. 17–cr–00479–CRB–1
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 313 F. Supp. 3d 1082 (United States v. Harger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Harger, 313 F. Supp. 3d 1082 (N.D. Cal. 2018).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO SUPPRESS

CHARLES R. BREYER, United States District Judge *1084The government charges Defendant Maurice Harger ("Harger") with being a felon in possession of a firearm. See Indictment (dkt. 1) at 3-4. Harger moves to suppress evidence of the firearm, arguing that it was obtained through an unlawful search and seizure. See generally Motion (dkt. 18). For the reasons discussed below, the Court GRANTS the motion.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Two Anonymous Tips

On April 20, 2017, the San Francisco Police Department ("SFPD") received two anonymous calls on its non-emergency line, both of which were recorded. See Linker Decl. (dkt. 19), Ex. B.1 The first call, placed at approximately 4:48 p.m., was from a woman reporting that the driver of a silver Toyota Sienna van parked near the Boys & Girls Club in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco had a gun and seemed to be "doing little drug transactions." Linker Decl., Ex. B, MH-000257 at 0:08-1:42. The caller mentioned that there were kids around. Id. at 1:29-1:42. She described the driver as a Black male "probably in his 30s" and said that the gun was "black in color," but she could not describe the driver's clothing. Id. at 1:05-1:30. She provided the license plate number of the van as 7RBF990, but when the SFPD operator confirmed the number as 7RBS990, the caller stated that the operator was correct. Id. at 0:54-1:04. The caller refused to provide her name or phone number. Id. at 1:42-1:45. After confirming that the Boys & Girls Club was located at 195 Kiska Road in the Bayview, and that the silver Sienna was parked across the street from the Club, the operator ended the call. Id. at 1:46-2:25.

The operator then made a broadcast to SFPD officers that there was a "Black male with a gun inside a vehicle" at 195 Kiska Road, and that the vehicle was a silver Toyota Sienna minivan with a license plate of 7RBS990. Linker Decl., Ex. B, MH-000257b at 0:01-0:06, 0:39-0:51. Seconds later, the operator noted that the plate number "actually comes back to a Honda." Id. at 0:53-0:55. SFPD officers arrived at 195 Kiska Road shortly thereafter. See id. at 1:00. The officers at the scene requested the vehicle's license plate number, and a second operator responded, "7RBS990." Id. at 1:05-1:10. The first operator, who had taken the call, then chimed in, saying that the person with a gun was reportedly in the driver's seat "doing drug transactions." Id. at 1:13-1:18. Neither operator said anything to the officers about the presence of children. Id., 257b. Unable to locate the reported vehicle or person with the gun, one officer asked who had called in the report. Id. at 1:33-1:37. The second operator stated that it "was called in by an anonymous person."Id. at 1:38-1:40. When asked if there was a call-back number, the same operator said there was no call-back number because the tip was "called in from the non-emergency *1085line." Id. at 1:49-1:54. The SFPD officers on scene could not locate the reported van or driver.

About forty minutes after the first call, at approximately 5:27 p.m., the SFPD received a second anonymous call on its non-emergency line. See Linker Decl., Ex. B, MH-000258 at 0:01-0:09. The anonymous caller-whom the parties agree was the same person from the first call-reported a "silver Sienna" near the Boys & Girls Club on Kiska Road and stated that "they have a gun." Id. at 0:06-0:18. The caller did not mention drug-dealing or children at all in this second call. Id., 258. The caller provided the van's license plate number as 7RBF990 and described the person with the gun as a "light-skinned" "African-American" wearing a black shirt and a hat. Id. at 0:41-1:31. When asked about the person's age, however, the caller responded that she didn't know. Id. at 0:44-0:47. Moreover, when asked for her name, the caller refused to give it, exclaiming, "I'm not giving you my name!" Id. at 1:31-1:34. According to the caller, she had seen the person with the gun when she had walked by, but because she had been on hold for ten minutes, she was unsure if the person was still there. Id. at 2:03-2:23. "You guys took so long to answer the non-emergency line," she told the operator. Id. at 1:45-1:50. On this occasion, unlike the first, the system recorded the caller's phone number. See Linker Decl., Ex. A, MH-000012 (phone number redacted).

About two minutes after the completion of this second anonymous call, the operator who had taken the first call broadcasted to SFPD officers that a "return call" had been made regarding a male with a gun in a silver Sienna in front of the Boys & Girls Club on Kiska Road. Linker Decl., Ex. B, MH-000258b at 2:21-2:34. The operator stated that the suspect was a Black male in a black shirt, and that the license plate number 7RBF990 was returning a Toyota Sienna with a registered owner in San Francisco. Id. at 2:39-2:45, 4:09-4:28. The operator said nothing about the presence of children. Id., 258b. The operator did note that the anonymous caller was "refusing to give their name and phone number." Id. at 2:45-2:48. Various SFPD units responded to the broadcast. Id. at 2:50-3:02. Several minutes later, at approximately 5:35 p.m., SFPD Sergeant Thomas Moran ("Moran") reported that he-along with his partner, Sergeant Patrick Griffin ("Griffin")-had found the vehicle, had "one detained," and no further assistance was required. Id. at 5:57-6:22; see also Linker Decl., Ex. A, MH-000038.

B. SFPD Officers' Interactions with Harger

On the afternoon of the two anonymous calls, Sergeants Griffin and Moran-part of the SFPD Gang Task Force-were on patrol in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. Griffin Decl. (dkt. 24-1) ¶ 3. Griffin has patrolled the Bayview-Hunters Point area, including the area around the Boys & Girls Club on Kiska Road, for several years. Id. ¶ 2. Griffin states that, based on his experience, he knows the neighborhood to be "a narcotics-prone and violent crime-prone area, with substantial gang activity involving multiple gangs and multiple recent shootings around April of 2017." Id. On the afternoon in question, both Griffin and Moran were in plainclothes and driving in an unmarked police SUV. Id. ¶ 3.

At approximately 4:48 that afternoon, Griffin and Moran heard a broadcast over the radio about the first anonymous call. Id. ¶ 4. In particular, they heard that an anonymous person had reported a Black adult male with a gun inside a Toyota Sienna, with license plate 7RBS990, in the vicinity of 195 Kiska Road. Id. They also *1086heard that the person was reportedly in the driver's seat and possibly engaging in drug transactions. Id. About forty minutes later, Griffin and Moran heard a broadcast about the second anonymous call and the report of a suspect with a gun in a silver Toyota Sienna, with license plate 7RBF990, at the Boys & Girls Club on Kiska Road. Id. ¶ 5.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
313 F. Supp. 3d 1082, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-harger-cand-2018.