United States v. Heald

165 F. Supp. 3d 765, 2016 WL 797587, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24465
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 25, 2016
DocketCASE NO. 5:15-CR-50064-001
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 165 F. Supp. 3d 765 (United States v. Heald) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Heald, 165 F. Supp. 3d 765, 2016 WL 797587, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24465 (W.D. Ark. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

TIMOTHY L. BROOKS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

“The Fourth Amendment Must Prevail.

Justice Antonin Scalia (1936 — 2016)1

On July 16, 2015, the police stopped Gregory Heald for a traffic infraction, and then detained him for approximately forty-five minutes so that a K-9 team could conduct an open-air drug sniff of his vehicle. After the sniff, the police searched Heald’s vehicle and discovered narcotics, paraphernalia, a firearm, and a cell phone with incriminating information on it. Heald was arrested, and now faces charges stemming from the incident. He argues, howev[768]*768er, that both his prolonged detention and the search of his vehicle violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The Court disagrees with the former argument, but agrees with the latter. Accordingly, the evidence found in Heald’s vehicle and on his cell phone must be suppressed as fruits of an illegal search.

I. BACKGROUND FINDINGS OF FACT

Heald filed his Motion to Suppress (Doc. 17) on November 17, 2015. The Court held a hearing on the Motion on January 27, 2016, which was later concluded on February 8, 2016. The findings of facts in this Opinion come from that hearing and the Court’s review of the evidence submitted during it.2 These findings of facts are necessarily lengthy, as analyzing both reasonable suspicion and probable cause requires a totality of the circumstances approach. Therefore, the Court has divided this section into five subparts: Subsection A includes the Court’s findings related to certain occurrences at 2014 Ina Avenue in Springdale, Arkansas; Subsection B includes findings about the initial portion of Heald’s stop; Subsection C includes findings about the middle portion of Heald’s stop; Subsection D includes certain findings about Bosco the K-9 and Officer Hernandez; and Subsection E includes findings about the open-air drug sniff. Finally, the Court makes certain additional findings of facts in its Discussion Section, below.

A. Suspicious Activity Reported at 2014 Ina Ave. # A

In July of 2015, a concerned citizen of Springdale, Arkansas began contacting Springfield Police Department (“SPD”) detective John Mackey. The citizen advised Detective Mackey that her neighbor, Butch Greenlee, who resided at 2014 Ina Ave. # A, was engaging in suspicious activity. Namely, she told Detective Mackey that Greenlee would come home after being gone for several days, back his vehicle into his driveway, and remove the door panels from the vehicle. Shortly thereafter, vehicle traffic around the residence would increase, with vehicles coming and then leaving a short time later during all hours through late night and early morning. Detective Mackey believed that the behavior could be indicative of drug trafficking activity.

On July 16, 2015, the concerned citizen called Detective Mackey and informed him that Greenlee had just returned home after being gone for two days, had backed his vehicle in his driveway, and was removing the door panels from the vehicle. Acting on this information, Detective Mackey and Detective Cody Ross drove to the location and observed a tan Chevy Blazer backed in near a garage door with both side doors opened and someone kneeling beside the driver side door. The detectives then left to acquire an additional vehicle from which to conduct surveillance.

When they returned, the detectives saw that a silver Toyota Camry was parked in the driveway as well. Detective Mackey also spotted the concerned citizen standing outside of her home. At that point he called the citizen, who told him that she did not see the silver Toyota Camry arrive, but did observe some individuals taking packages from the areas of the Chevy Blazer’s door panels into the garage. She also reported seeing a bald white man carry two packages out to the silver Toyota Camry. She then made eye contact with him, spooked him, turned around, and did [769]*769not know whether he put the packages in the Camry or carried them back to the house.3 As the detectives later found out, the bald white man was Gregory Heald.

Shortly after returning to the scene, the detectives saw Heald exit Greenlee’s apartment and drive away in the silver Toyota' Camry. Detective Ross followed the vehicle to a Harp’s Foods supermarket, and observed Heald enter the market. Approximately five minutes later, Heald returned from the market carrying a bag of groceries. The Court’s review of the police radio recording revealed that Detective Ross at this point said “this guy may have just come and bought a bunch of sandwich baggies to be honest with you.” Gov’t Ex. 9, at 15:35. Later, Detective Ross states over the radio that something in the grocery bag “appeared to be” baggies but he “couldn’t really tell from the distance [he] was at.” Id. at 28:19.

Detective Ross followed Heald out of the parking lot and witnessed him commit several traffic infractions. Detective Ross then communicated the infractions to SPD officer Guillermo Sanchez,4 who was travelling in a marked vehicle directly behind him. Officer Sanchez also testified that he witnessed the traffic infractions himself. Officer Sanchez then passed Detective Ross, activated his police lights, and stopped Heald on probable cause of committing traffic violations.

B. The Initial Portion of the Stop: Investigating a Traffic Infraction

The mobile video recorder (“MVR”)5 on Officer Sanchez’s vehicle, which captured video and audio of the stop, begins filming moments before Officer Sanchez pulls Heald’s vehicle over.6 Heald stops his vehicle at approximately 15:50:47 per the MVR’s clock. Once Heald is stopped, Sanchez approaches the vehicle and identifies himself as an SPD officer. He informs Heald that the reason he stopped him was for driving left of center while taking a right turn. Officer Sanchez asks whether he has been drinking alcohol, which Heald denies. Heald then produces his license and registration upon request, and engages in a brief conversation with Officer Sanchez, during which Heald denies having anything illegal in his car or having ever been arrested.

Officer Sanchez returns to his vehicle and asks dispatch to run Heald’s information. Dispatch responds that Heald has a valid driver’s license.7 At 15:55:38, Officer Sanchez returns to Heald’s vehicle and asks him for consent to search, which [770]*770Heald denies. After again inquiring into whether Heald has anything illegal in his vehicle, Sanchez says that he was asking because Heald was acting nervous and shaking when he first pulled him over. After a short conversation, Officer Sanchez returns to his vehicle at 15:56:40. While he is back in his patrol car, there is a discussion over the radio — presumably between the two detectives — stating that the on-duty K-9 team was busy with another mission, and that Officer Sanchez would have to wait for an off-duty K-9 team to get to the scene. One of the detectives instructs Officer Sanchez to “get him [Heald] out of the car and develop some small talk with him to start noting any indicators” so that they can articulate why they had to wait for the K-9. Around 16:00:00, Detective Ross asks Officer Sanchez whether he noticed any packaging in the vehicle, and after he replies in the negative, asks him to check whether Heald’s grocery bag contains Ziploc baggies.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 F. Supp. 3d 765, 2016 WL 797587, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-heald-arwd-2016.