United States v. Jeremy Payne

99 F.4th 495
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedApril 17, 2024
Docket22-50262
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 99 F.4th 495 (United States v. Jeremy Payne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Jeremy Payne, 99 F.4th 495 (9th Cir. 2024).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 22-50262

Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. 5:22-cr- 00054-PA-1 v.

JEREMY TRAVIS PAYNE, AKA OPINION Jeramey Travis Payne,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Percy Anderson, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted February 14, 2024 Pasadena, California

Filed April 17, 2024

Before: Richard C. Tallman and Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges, and Robert S. Lasnik, * District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Tallman

* The Honorable Robert S. Lasnik, United States District Judge for the Western District of Washington, sitting by designation. 2 USA V. PAYNE

SUMMARY **

Criminal Law

The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of Jeremy Travis Payne’s motion to suppress evidence. Payne, a California parolee, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, fluorofentanyl, and cocaine. After the district court denied his motion to suppress evidence of these crimes that California Highway Patrol officers had recovered from a house in Palm Desert, California, he entered a conditional guilty plea to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute. The panel held that the CHP officers did not violate the Fourth Amendment in their search, during a traffic stop, of Payne’s cell phone, made possible by the officers’ forced use of his thumb to unlock the device. The panel held that, despite the language of a special search condition of Payne’s parole, requiring him to surrender any electronic device and provide a pass key or code, but not requiring him to provide a biometric identifier to unlock the device, the search was authorized under a general search condition, mandated by California law, allowing the suspicionless search of any property under Payne’s control. The panel concluded that any ambiguity created by the special condition, when factored into the totality of the circumstances, did not increase Payne’s expectation of privacy in his cell phone to render the search unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The panel further held that the search of the

** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. USA V. PAYNE 3

cell phone was not unreasonable on a theory that it violated California’s prohibition against arbitrary, capricious, or harassing searches. In addition, the search of Payne’s photos, videos, and maps on his cell phone did not run afoul of Riley v. California, which held that officers cannot search the contents of an individual’s cell phone incident to their arrest, because Riley does not apply to parole searches of a cell phone. The panel held that the CHP officers did not violate Payne’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination when they compelled him to unlock his cell phone using his fingerprint. Payne established that the communication at issue was compelled and incriminating. The panel held, however, that the compelled use of a biometric to unlock an electronic device was not testimonial because it required no cognitive exertion, placing it in the same category as a blood draw or a fingerprint taken at booking, and merely provided the CHP with access to a source of potential information. Accordingly, the Fifth Amendment did not apply. The panel held that there was sufficient probable cause to support issuance of a search warrant without regard to observations CHP officers made during a challenged protective sweep of the Palm Desert House. 4 USA V. PAYNE

COUNSEL

Caroline S. Platt (argued), Assistant Federal Public Defender; Cuauhtemoc Ortega, Federal Public Defender; Federal Public Defender’s Office, Los Angeles, for Defendant-Appellant. Haoxiaohan H. Cai (argued), Assistant United States Attorney, General Crimes Section; Bram M. Alden, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief, Criminal Appeals Section; E. Martin Estrada, United States Attorney; United States Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorney, Los Angeles, California, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

OPINION

TALLMAN, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Jeremy Travis Payne was a California parolee when he was arrested and charged with three counts of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, fluorofentanyl, and cocaine. After the district court denied Payne’s motion to suppress evidence of these crimes recovered from a home in Palm Desert, California, Payne entered a conditional guilty plea to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute at least 40 grams in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B)(vi). On appeal, Payne challenges the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress, arguing that California Highway Patrol (“CHP”) officers violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. USA V. PAYNE 5

I In November 2018, Payne was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, in violation of Cal. Penal Code § 245(c). He was sentenced to three years imprisonment and later released on parole. On September 23, 2020, Payne signed a one-page “Notice and Conditions of Parole” document and a separate, three-page “Special Conditions of Parole” document. Pursuant to Cal. Penal Code § 3067(b)(3) and 15 Cal. Code Regs. § 2511(b)(4), Payne’s Notice and Conditions of Parole included the following condition (“general search condition”) 1:

You, your residence, and any property under your control are subject to search or seizure by a probation officer, an agent or officer of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or any other peace officer, at any time of the day or night, with or without a search warrant, with or without cause.

Payne’s Special Conditions of Parole included a more detailed condition (“special search condition”) concerning electronic devices:

You shall surrender any digital/electronic device and provide a pass key/code to unlock the device to any law enforcement officer for inspection other than what is visible on the display screen. This includes any

1 This general search condition is “mandated as a term of every parolee’s release” in the State of California. People v. Delrio, 259 Cal. Rptr. 3d 301, 305 (Ct. App. 2020); see People v. Schmitz, 288 P.3d 1259, 1264– 65 (Cal. 2012). 6 USA V. PAYNE

digital/electronic device in your vicinity. Failure to comply can result in your arrest pending further investigation and/or confiscation of any device pending investigation.

On November 3, 2021, CHP officers Coddington and Garcia—who were both assigned to the Coachella Valley Violent Crime Gang Taskforce—were patrolling an area in Desert Hot Springs, California. They saw a gold Nissan with what they perceived to be unlawfully tinted front windows and initiated a traffic stop for a suspected violation of Cal. Veh. Code § 26708. Officer Coddington approached the vehicle and asked the driver, Payne, to provide his driver’s license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance. Officer Coddington later reported that Payne was “extremely nervous,” “trembling as he fumbled for the documents,” “sweating profusely,” and “stammering when he spoke.” Payne informed the officers that he was on California parole. After confirming Payne’s California parole status with Riverside County Sheriff’s Dispatch, Officer Coddington asked Payne and his female passenger to get out of the car. Payne was handcuffed and eventually detained in the back of a squad car.

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Bluebook (online)
99 F.4th 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jeremy-payne-ca9-2024.