United States v. Juvelis

194 F. Supp. 745

• Court: District Court, D. New Jersey
• Decided: June 20, 1961
• Docket: Crim. A. 158-59
• Status: Published

Opinions

MEANEY, District Judge.

Defendants Rodriguez and Juvelis have •moved to suppress the use at trial of certain items which were allegedly the subject of an illegal search and seizure. The issue is whether there was probable cause for the arrest leading to the search which produced the items sought to be suppressed.

The episode in question began about 10 P. M. on the night of February 26, 1959, when Rodriguez was invited to accompany Juvelis and Maugere on a trip to Florida. Shortly thereafter they departed in Maugere’s car, heading south from Newark on the New Jersey Turnpike. They left the Turnpike and proceeded to the Delaware Memorial Bridge which connects New Jersey and Delaware. As they pulled up to the toll booth on the Delaware side of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, they were ordered out of the car at gunpoint by two or three members of the Delaware State Police. They were “frisked” for concealed weapons and were then led to the Bridge administration building. As they were being led away from the car, one of the Delaware policemen searched the car. Inside the building a further search of their persons was conducted. The searches yielded presumably incriminating evidence which is the subject of this motion.

Initially, the court observes that Elkins v. United States, 1960, 364 U.S. 206, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669, has eliminated the necessity for considering the extent of federal participation in a search by state officers. That case holds that evidence seized in an unreasonable search by state officers is to be excluded from a federal criminal trial.

The evidence on the issue of probable cause consists of the following testimony by one of the Delaware officers who participated in the arrest and searches:

“While on routine patrol, we happened to stop by the New Jersey Turnpike toilgates, and we were talking to one of the toll collectors over there, Mr. Holman, and he told us that the information concerning this particular car, and securities that were supposedly to be in the car, or on their persons, had come over the teletype, or police radio, from Jersey. He gave us full information on the type of car, license number, amount of occupants in the car, and amount of particulars of what we should find in that car or their persons. Approximately four — between four and four-twenty in the morning, we were called by Public Service, by this same person from the toll booth over at the New Jersey Turnpike, and he told us that the car had just left the Turnpike heading south.

“We were under the belief — we had no idea when this robbery was committed or anything else. We were told they were armed; so being as somebody told us they were armed, we take precautions. So we unloaded them out of the car with guns.”

The court is of the opinion that probable cause for the arrest existed. Though the information of the arresting officer was obtained in an indirect manner, and though its ultimate source does not appear from the evidence, it was received through official channels available only to law'-enforcement officers. The information he received was complete, positive, and, in effect, directed or requested him to make the arrest. When, as here, we deal with “factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act” (Brinegar v. United States, 1949, 338 U.S. 160, 175, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1310, 93 L.Ed. 1879) it seems clear that the facts and circumstances warranted a prudent man in believing that an offense had been or was being committed. United States v. Murphy, 3 Cir., 290 F.2d 573.

The court has weighed the danger of allowing arrest and seizure to be validated by the device of using official law-enforcement communication channels to transmit the information relied upon by the arresting officers against the necessities of effective law enforcement. Under the circumstances of this case, the latter' must prevail.

The motion is denied.

Submit an order.