United States v. Harty

476 F. Supp. 2d 17, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16049, 2007 WL 682582
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedMarch 7, 2007
DocketCriminal 04-10120-RGS
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 476 F. Supp. 2d 17 (United States v. Harty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Harty, 476 F. Supp. 2d 17, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16049, 2007 WL 682582 (D. Mass. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT’S MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS AFTER EVIDENTIARY . HEARINGS

STEARNS, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Defendant Loren Harty was arrested by Boston police officers on January 20, 2004, and charged under state law with, among other crimes, the illegal possession of a firearm. Probable cause for Harty’s arrest was based on identifications made by civilian witnesses during a street side showup. Upon being taken into custody, Harty’s boots were seized as evidence. While the state charges were pending, Harty was indicted by a federal grand jury as- a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). While being driven by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to the federal court in Boston for an initial appearance, Harty made incriminating statements. He now seeks to suppress the identifications, the boots, and the statements. For reasons that will be explained, the motions to suppress the identifications and the boots will be DENIED. The motion to suppress the statements will be ALLOWED.

FINDINGS OF FACT

After an extended evidentiary hearing and post-trial briefing, I make the following findings of fact.

1. Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on January 20, 2004, the Boston police received two 911 calls reporting gunshots at 42 Julian Street in Roxbury. The callers gave their names and addresses. One of the callers, *20 Mariluz Cortez, resided at 38 Julian Street. Cortez described the gunman as a 5'3" to 5'4" -black Hispanic male in his thirties, medium build, and wearing a black jacket, black jeans, and a black hat. Cortez stated that the gunman was headed in the direction of a liquor store on Blue Hill Avenue.

2. The 911 reports were broadcast by a police dispatcher. Officers converged on 42 Julian Street and quickly located three witnesses in a second floor apartment— Mark McCallister, the tenant, Damien Wiley, his cousin, and King Belin, a friend of Wiley’s. Wiley stated that he had met Belin just before 4:00 p.m. on Blue Hill Avenue while walking to McCallister’s -apartment. The two men were accosted by a man whom they did not know. The man said to them, ICYou know me, I’m L. Got anything?” Wiley and Belin replied “no.” They then asked “L” to leave them alone. In response, “L” challenged them to a fight. Wiley and Belin attempted to walk away, but “L” followed them to .42 Julian Street. After exchanging words with Wiley at the entrance to the building, “L” disappeared. Wiley and Belin proceeded to McCallister’s apartment. Ten minutes later, the three men heard a ruckus on the street. From a window, they saw “L” waving his arms in their direction and shouting insults. McCallister left the apartment and confronted “L,” demanding that he leave. “L” refused, insisting that McCallister, “Tell them i niggers to come down. I am going to pop them.” “L” then drew a silver-colored handgun from the waistband of his pants. Upon seeing the gun, McCallister ran back into the building. As he fled up the stairs, he heard a gunshot. “L” chased McCallister into his apartment. He then began kicking at the door screaming, “I am going to get you motherfuckers.”

3. Eric Gaines, a hospital security guard who lived in the first floor apartment at 42 Julian Street, arrived home just before the scuffle between McCallister and “L” began. Gaines told a Suffolk County grand jury that he also had been accosted on Blue Hill Avenue by “L.” In Games’ opinion, “L” was drunk or high on drugs. Gaines told “L” that he did not know who he was. “L” nonetheless followed Gaines home. As they walked to 42 Julian Street, Gaines observed the handle of a gun protruding from beneath “L’s” shirt. As Gaines fumbled for the key to his apartment, “L” became agitated and began yelling to the residents of the second floor apartment to “bring them niggers downstairs so I can pop them.” McCallister then came out of the building and confronted “L”. Gaines attempted to push McCallister back inside the vestibule. “L” followed them and drew the gun. As McCallister scrambled up the stairs, Gaines struggled to open the door to his apartment. Failing in the effort, he ran back towards the street, brushing by “L” as he did so. As he reached the door, he heard the report of a gunshot coming from the hallway. 1

*21 4. Officers Jon-Michael Harber and Edward Gately were among the officers in the area of Julian Street when the 911 calls were broadcast. They drove immediately to the liquor store on Blue Hill Avenue that they knew to be closest in proximity. When they arrived at the store some two or three minutes later, they saw Harty walking towards them. Gately noted that Harty bore a resemblance to the description of the gunman. Harty was then twenty-eight years old, black, had a medium build, and was wearing a black jacket and dark jeans. 2

5. Harber recognized Harty from a pri- or arrest. He said to Gatley, “That’s Loren Harty. Stop him.” Harber knew that Harty had been previously arrested for felony offenses, including a firearms charge. As Harber and Gately got out of their cruiser, Harty threw his hands in the air insisting, “I didn’t do anything.” In Harber’s opinion, Harty appeared uncharacteristically nervous. When Harber began a pat frisk, Harty exclaimed, “I don’t have nothing. I don’t have a gun.”

6. After speaking with the officers at 42 Julian Street, Harber and Gately decided to have Harty taken to the scene of the shooting for purposes of a showup. Upon arriving at Julian Street, Harty was confined in a cruiser while Harber went to the second floor apartment to speak with MeCallister, Belin, and Wiley. The three men told Harber that they would be able to identify the gunman. At Harber’s radioed request, Harty was removed from the cruiser and positioned between Gately and at least one other uniformed officer. Wiley and MeCallister made positive identifications -of Harty from the vantage of the second floor window. 3

7. When Harber radioed Gately that Harty had been positively identified by the mén in the apartment, Gately placed Harty under arrest. Approximately seventeen minutes had elapsed from the time Harty had been stopped on Blue Hill Avenue.

8. While Harty was standing by the cruiser, Cortez shouted to the officers from her third floor window that Harty was the man she and her son had seen earlier with a gun. After completing the arrest, Gately spoke to Cortez. She stated that she had sent her twelve year old son out earlier to rent a video. He had come running back up. the stairs screaming about a man with a gun. Cortez then went to the window. She observed Harty standing in front of 42 Julian Street waving a gray handgun and yelling for someone to come outside. After hearing a gunshot, Cortez returned to the window and saw Harty walk behind a building at 4 Rand Place towards the liquor store on Blue Hill Avenue. She then called 911.

9. Gately traced the route Cortez had seen Harty take. He followed a set of footprints in the snow to an open field at the intersection of Julian Street and Rand Place. 4

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
476 F. Supp. 2d 17, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16049, 2007 WL 682582, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-harty-mad-2007.