United States v. Lam Ly

94 F. Supp. 3d 5, 2015 WL 1456185
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedApril 2, 2015
DocketCriminal Action No. 13-CR-40031-TSH
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 94 F. Supp. 3d 5 (United States v. Lam Ly) 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. Lam Ly, 94 F. Supp. 3d 5, 2015 WL 1456185 (D. Mass. 2015).

Opinion

AMENDED FINDING AND ORDER ON DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS TO SUPPRESS

HILLMAN, District Judge.

Introduction

The Defendants are charged with running an illegal marijuana' cultivation and sales operation. The evidence against them includes the fruits of warranted searches of eight residences and 15 motor vehicles. Seven of the defendants have moved to suppress from.the introduction into evidence against them at trial, contraband and miscellaneous seized items from those searches. For the reasons set forth below, those motions are denied.

Background

The aphorism that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” would certainly apply to the law enforcement officials who investigated this case. In March of 2013, workers at the Oxford Transfer Station apprised local police that large amounts of marijuana debris were being deposited at their facility. Defendants Lam Ly and Tam Pham were identified as the owners and drivers of several of the vehicles dumping the debris at the transfer station. The authorities learned that Ly and several co-conspirators in this case were awaiting trial for being part of a marijuana distribution organization in the state of Washington. Their investigation also revealed that in December of 2012, law; enforcement officials had found paperwork connecting Ly and Pham to a house in Connecticut where large amounts of marijuana had been grown. Part of that paperwork included a receipt from the Oxford Transfer Station., Significantly, that Connecticut grow house had a by-passed electrical meter.

• The ensuing law enforcement investigation focused on the examination of the marijuana detritus that continued to be deposited at the Oxford Transfer Station, surveillance of the conspiracy members, including the use of GPS technology, and on data collected from the installation of electrical “check meters” installed at seven residential addresses suspected of being marijuana grow houses. The check meters were installed by National Grid and Pax-ton Municipal Light and Power to determine if electrical service to the residences was being illegally diverted.

Based upon the information obtained from these and other sources, DEA Special Agent Robert Olsen, using a single omnibus affidavit, applied for and received search warrants for eight residences and numerous motor vehicles. The searches pursuant to those warrants were conducted on September 25, 2013 by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. Over 2,000 marijuana plants, more than $124,000 in cash, marijuana cultivation equipment, and equipment used to illegally circumvent electrical meters were discovered and seized.

Two defendants, Lam Ly and Tam Pham, have moved to suppress the results of all eight of the residential searches. Four other defendants have moved to suppress evidence seized at single locations. In addition to seeking to suppress the search of his residence, Defendant Diep Pham has moved to suppress statements that he made at his Webster home and later at the Oxford police station. Finally, all Defendants but Luan Bui have moved to suppress the information received from [10]*10the check meters.1 Because some of the defendants have the same last name, and some are married, I have annexed to this opinion is a chart that sets forth which search(es) each defendant seeks ■ to suppress. In addition, that chart sets forth the putative address of each defendant and any relationships with other co-defendants alleged by the government.

The constitutionality of the installation of the check meters by National Grid

In July of 2013, based upon their belief that the conspiracy was maintaining multiple grow houses, DEA Agent Olsen contacted National Grid and the Paxton Municipal Light and Power Light Company. Because indoor marijuana growing operations consume a great deal of energy, and because growers sometimes bypass electrical meters in order not to draw attention to themselves and to save money, Olsen asked National Grid and Paxton Municipal Light and Power to investigate whether electricity was being diverted at seven addresses: 56 and 17 Blueberry Hill, Webster MA, 17 Nutmeg Drive, Worcester, MA, 11 Oakwood Drive, Webster MA, 54 Parker Street, Worcester, MA, 5 Pinnacle Way, Douglas, MA and 451 West Street, Paxton, MA.2 National Grid and Paxton Municipal Light and Power agreed to install a “check meter” at each of those premises which would allow them to measure the amount of electricity entering the house independently of what the residential meter showed. Comparisons of the readings from the meters confirmed that the commercial meter had been bypassed at each address.

The defendants argue that the installation and monitoring of the check meters was a warrantless search by National Grid acting as a governmental agent onto the curtilage of their homes. The Government’s position is that National Grid was not a governmental actor, that the collection of data via the check meter was not a search, and that the Defendants consented to the collection of the check meter data. Whether National Grid was acting as an agent of the government is dispositive of this issue.

Did National Grid act as an agent of the United States?

The protections of the Fourth Amendment are “wholly inapplicable ‘to a search or seizure, even an unreasonable one effected by a private individual not acting as an agent of the Government or with the participation or knowledge of any governmental official.’ ” U.S. v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 113, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984) (citing Walter v. U.S., 447 U.S. 649, 662, 100 S.Ct. 2395, 65 L.Ed.2d 410 (1980)). The First Circuit has rejected a specific test for determining when a private actor crosses the line and becomes a government instrumentality as “likely to be oversimplified or too general to be of help” and suggests that factors used by other circuits “may be pertinent in different circumstances: the extent of the government’s role in instigating or participating in the search, its intent and degree [11]*11of control it exercises over the search and private party, and the extent to which the private party aims primarily to help the government or to serve its own interests.” U.S. v. Pervaz, 118 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir.1997). The defendants have the burden of establishing government involvement in a private search. U.S. v. Snowadzki, 723 F.2d 1427, 1429 (9th Cir.1984), cert. denied 469 U.S. 839, 105 S.Ct. 140, 83 L.Ed.2d 80 (1984).

In his omnibus affidavit in support of the application for the warrants, it appears that SA Olsen brought all seven of the suspected grow house locations to the attention of the power companies at the same time. He uses the same language in support of the search of each of the four grow house addresses mentioned in the affidavit. “In or around July 2013, I informed National Grid of my suspicion that (the subject premises) may be the site of an indoor marijuana grow operation and of my concern that the occupants of the property may be stealing electricity.” It also appears that National Grid, acting on SA Olsen’s information, installed the check meters at, or on, July 25th, 2013.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
94 F. Supp. 3d 5, 2015 WL 1456185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-lam-ly-mad-2015.