United States v. Mayen-Munoz

844 F. Supp. 2d 251, 2012 WL 464023, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18002
CourtDistrict Court, D. Rhode Island
DecidedFebruary 13, 2012
DocketCR. No. 11-035-S
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 844 F. Supp. 2d 251 (United States v. Mayen-Munoz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Mayen-Munoz, 844 F. Supp. 2d 251, 2012 WL 464023, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18002 (D.R.I. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

WILLIAM E. SMITH, District Judge.

Defendant Donato Rogelio Mayen-Munoz has moved to suppress tangible evidence seized from his person as fruits of an arrest unsupported by probable cause. The Court conducted an evidentiary hearing on October 24, 25, and 28 and November 7, 2011. After considering the evidence and arguments of the parties, for the reasons set forth below, the motion is denied.

[253]*253I. Findings of Fact

On March 1 and 2, 2011, members of the Pawtucket Police Department (PPD) assisted agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in conducting surveillance of one Richard Morel, as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation. Morel had been previously convicted of a drug offense in Rhode Island in August of 2002; that transaction involved over half a kilogram of cocaine, for which Morel served nearly five years. The surveillance team believed Morel was more recently involved in multi-kilogram cocaine distribution and heroin deliveries.

On March 1, detectives observed Morel travel to three small motor lodges and hotels in Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts. At each stop, he dropped off a different individual.1 PPD Detectives Scott Sullivan and Dennis Smith both regarded Morel’s comings and goings as indicative of large-scale drug trafficking activity because it separated participants from each other and law enforcement.

At approximately 12:45 p.m. the next day, March 2, detectives observed Morel pick up Defendant Mayen-Munoz2 near the Providence train station. Detectives followed as Morel drove to his residence at 29 Wealth Avenue in Providence. From there, Morel and two other individuals drove to a Penske truck leasing location where they rented a truck. They then returned, with the truck, to Morel’s residence.

Later that afternoon, Defendant drove the truck from Morel’s residence to a Motel 6 in Warwick. Detectives Sullivan and Smith were familiar with this hotel as a result of conducting five or six large-scale narcotic arrests and seizures there. Co-defendants Geraldo Alavez and Jose Luis Martinez-Garcia joined the Defendant from the hotel, and Defendant drove all three in the Penske truck to a Home Depot in nearby Attleboro, Massachusetts; there, Defendant purchased two pairs of work gloves.

From the Home Depot, the group drove (with Alavez at the wheel) to R & L Carriers, a commercial trucking facility in Seekonk, Massachusetts. En route, the truck made a brief stop at a parking lot on the corner of Benefit and Calder in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The detectives could not observe what occurred during the stop.3

After the brief stop, the Penske truck proceeded to R & L Carriers.4 Using binoculars, Detective Smith observed two individuals leave the Penske truck and enter the office building, but he could not identify them. A few minutes later, Smith observed the two individuals return to the truck and drive it to an area within R & L outside of Smith’s view. Approximately fifteen minutes later, the Penske truck left R & L and headed back toward Pawtucket.

After the truck left R & L, Detective Smith (who was in an unmarked vehicle) called Sergeant Lefebvre and asked him to respond to the area of Benefit and Central in Pawtucket in his marked, police cruiser. Smith told Lefebvre that he believed the truck contained a large quantity of narcot[254]*254ics and asked him to stop the truck if he observed a traffic violation. Both Smith and Lefebvre also called Officer Ernest Pendergrass, a K-9 officer with the PPD, to put him on notice that he might be needed.

Lefebvre picked up the trail on Benefit Street and followed directly behind the Penske truck; when the truck made a sharp, abrupt left turn without using its turn signal on to Calder Street, Lefebvre activated his overhead lights and followed the truck as it turned into the driveway of a private residence at 96 Calder Street.

As Lefebvre approached the Penske truck, co-defendant Alavez emerged and started walking toward him. Lefebvre told Alavez to stop and asked him for his license and registration. Alavez appeared nervous. As Alavez was looking for paperwork in the truck, Lefebvre heard the sound of a door shut. He then looked inside the vehicle and noticed it was empty. This concerned Lefebvre because he was told by Detective Smith to expect three individuals inside the truck.

Lefebvre asked Alavez about the whereabouts of his passengers, but he would not answer. Alavez eventually produced a California identification card, but no license. Lefebvre then arrested Alavez and placed him in the back of his police car. Lefebvre notified dispatch of the car stop and called Officer Pendergrass to have him respond immediately.

Pendergrass arrived within several minutes, and Lefebvre asked him to send Bak, his K-9 police dog, into the back of the truck. Lefebvre testified that his request was motivated by both a concern that there might be somebody in the back of the truck and by a desire to search for narcotics. When pressed by the Court as to whether he really believed that an individual had gotten into the back of the truck, Lefebvre conceded that there was a solid wall between the passenger compartment and the back, but maintained that he honestly did not know whether someone was in the back.

Pendergrass testified that, when he arrived on scene, Lefebvre informed him that somebody could be in the back of the truck. On cross-examination, Officer Pendergrass insisted that they were initially concerned that someone was in the back of the truck, not with searching for narcotics; his police report, however, stated that Lefebvre requested he conduct a search for possible narcotics and did not mention a search for people.

Officer Pendergrass testified that he gives Bak different commands depending on whether he wants him to search for humans or for narcotics. Bak searches for humans first, and Officer Pendergrass’s ability to call him off before he searches for narcotics would depend upon the strength of the potential narcotics scent.

At approximately 7:20 p.m., Officer Pendergrass placed Bak inside the back of the Penske truck, without giving any particular command. Bak’s breathing and body language changed, and Pendergrass gave him the command to search for narcotics; Bak alerted to the presence of narcotics almost immediately. Officer Pendergrass returned Bak to his police vehicle at approximately 7:25 p.m.5

Lefebvre then communicated to Detective Smith that the dog had alerted on a pallet inside the truck and that the driver was in custody. This was his first communication with Smith since before the traffic [255]*255stop. Thereafter, another detective drove the track to a secure evidence facility.

The following events began to unfold at the same time Sergeant Lefebvre initiated the traffic stop. After the Penske truck was stopped at 96 Calder, Detective Smith observed co-defendant Martinez-Garcia exit the track and walk to the corner of Benefit and Newport. Smith then spotted Defendant standing on a different corner of the same intersection.

At approximately 7:09 p.m.,6 Detective David Medeiros of the PPD radioed, indicating that he saw Martinez-Garcia enter the Shell station at Benefit and Newport. Medeiros detained him shortly thereafter.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
844 F. Supp. 2d 251, 2012 WL 464023, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18002, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mayen-munoz-rid-2012.