United States v. Monteiro

447 F.3d 39, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11366, 2006 WL 1195685
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMay 5, 2006
Docket05-2283
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 447 F.3d 39 (United States v. Monteiro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First 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. Monteiro, 447 F.3d 39, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11366, 2006 WL 1195685 (1st Cir. 2006).

Opinion

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

Acting on Amando Monteiro’s pretrial motion, the district court suppressed from evidence two guns the police obtained during a vehicle stop. The government sought our review pursuant to 18 U.S.C. *41 § 1371, which authorizes interlocutory appeals in situations such as this. We affirm.

I.

In an appeal from a suppression order, the district court’s findings of fact govern absent a showing of clear error. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). Neither party suggests that the district court made such an error, so we recite the facts as the district court found them. We also add a few undisputed details from the record.

Shortly after 4:00 P.M. on March 25, 1999, Boston police responded to reports of gunfire on Eastman Street, in the Dor-chester section of the city. The target of the shooting, who escaped unharmed, was Antonio Cabral. The police knew that Cabral was associated with a gang and that his gang and its rival had been involved in a series of shootings. At the scene on Eastman Street, patrol officers James Coyne and Thomas Griffiths spoke with Cabral for about an hour. Cabral reported that two men had shot at him through a fence, while he was standing in his driveway. Cabral said he had no knowledge of the identity of the shooters, but another person who had been nearby told the police that a red Mazda had raced away from Eastman Street shortly after the shooting.

At around 8:00 P.M. that evening, Coyne and Griffiths returned to Eastman Street and interviewed Cabral again. This time, Cabral’s mother and brother were present. Cabral again said he had no information for the police. The Cabrals complained that the police “weren’t doing enough in the community to stop the violence.” Coyne responded that the police could do more if neighborhood residents would “give us information for us to solve these shootings.” Cabral then said that he had no information to offer about his own shooting but that he had information about another shooting that same day. Cabral said that a relative told him that she had witnessed gunfire on Shirley Street from two cars, a red Mazda and a red Honda with license plate 5021EV. Coyne asked Cabral who the relative was. Coyne understood Cabral to indicate that the relative was female, but Cabral refused to give her name or any other information about her. The police made no further attempts to identify or locate the unnamed relative.

That same evening, Coyne and Griffiths drove to Shirley Street and looked for some evidence of gunfire, such as spent shell casings or bullet damage. They found none. The officers also searched the police department’s records to see if anybody had reported gunfire on Shirley Street. No one had. Coyne later testified at the suppression hearing that it was typical for shootings in the neighborhood to be reported to 911, and for obvious evidence of gunfire to be found at the scene. 1

Coyne ran the 5021EV license plate number through the vehicle registration database and matched the plates to a red Honda belonging to Marcelino Rodrigues. Coyne was familiar with Rodrigues and suspected that he was affiliated with a gang that was a rival to Cabral’s. Coyne also knew that Rodrigues had been arrested three weeks earlier in Randolph, Massachusetts, on a firearms possession *42 charge. 2 Coyne and Griffiths went to the address Rodrigues had listed on his vehicle registration, but Rodrigues was not there. That night, the officers looked for Rodri-gues around the neighborhood but did not find him. Coyne and Griffiths radioed other officers in the area to be on the lookout for Rodrigues and the red Honda, but no one saw Rodrigues or his car.

A full week passed during which the police apparently conducted no further investigation of the possible shooting on Shirley Street. Then, on March 31st, Coyne, Griffiths, and a third officer were conducting a traffic stop when they saw Rodrigues and two passengers drive by. The officers rushed to their cars, pursued Rodrigues, and pulled him over for “field interrogation and observation.” 3 There was no traffic violation or suspicious activity. The defendant was one of Rodrigues’s passengers.

Although this appeal is limited' to the legality of the initial vehicle stop, we relate briefly what happened thereafter. The officers ordered Rodrigues and his passengers to step out of the car. The third officer, who was not available to testify at the suppression hearing, told Coyne that he had seen a gun in the center console of the car. 4 The police then handcuffed Rod-rigues and his passengers and, upon obtaining a search warrant, searched the car and recovered two guns. These guns comprise the evidence at issue in this appeal. At the scene, the police questioned Rodri-gues about the purported Shirley Street shooting and about the attempted shooting of Cabral on Eastman Street. Rodrigues denied involvement in either event. 5

Subsequently, the state and federal governments indicted the defendant on a variety of charges. In both prosecutions, the defendant sought to suppress evidence gathered in connection with the March 31st stop of Rodrigues’s car. 6 The district court held a two-day evidentiary hearing and issued a thoughtful order. The court concluded: “While this is a borderline case, once the tip [of a shooting on Shirley Street] proved to be unreliable, the hunch [that Rodrigues was involved in criminal activity] was not enough to establish a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity sufficient to stop the red Honda.”

II.

The sole question in this interlocutory appeal is whether the police acted reasonably in stopping Rodrigues and his passengers on March 31st. Because only the district court’s ultimate Fourth Amendment conclusion is at issue, our review is de novo. United States v. Paradis, 351 F.3d 21, 24 (1st Cir.2003).

*43 When a police officer makes “brief investigatory stops of persons and vehicles that fall short of traditional arrest ... the Fourth Amendment is satisfied if the officer’s action is supported by reasonable suspicion that criminal activity may be afoot,” United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002) (internal quotation marks omitted), or if there is “reasonable suspicion, grounded in specific and articulable facts, that [the stopped] person ... was involved in or is wanted in connection with a completed felony,” United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 229, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Maine v. Derric McLain
2025 ME 87 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2025)
United States v. Langston
110 F.4th 408 (First Circuit, 2024)
United States v. Fagan
71 F.4th 12 (First Circuit, 2023)
State of Maine v. Timothy Barclift
2022 ME 50 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 2022)
United States v. Morales Torres
382 F. Supp. 3d 131 (District of Columbia, 2019)
United States v. Leonardo Acevedo-Vázquez [1]
335 F. Supp. 3d 263 (U.S. District Court, 2018)
Nathan P. Jackson v. United States
157 A.3d 1259 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2017)
United States v. Lawrence
675 F. App'x 1 (First Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Harold Castle
825 F.3d 625 (D.C. Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Hasston, Inc.
75 F. Supp. 3d 101 (District of Columbia, 2014)
United States v. Garcia
53 F. Supp. 3d 502 (D. New Hampshire, 2014)
United States v. Martinez
762 F.3d 127 (First Circuit, 2014)
State v. Daniel L. Widner
317 P.3d 737 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 2013)
Prall v. City of Boston
985 F. Supp. 2d 115 (D. Massachusetts, 2013)
United States v. Carrigan
724 F.3d 39 (First Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Jones
700 F.3d 615 (First Circuit, 2012)
Aldrich v. Town of Milton
881 F. Supp. 2d 158 (D. Massachusetts, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
447 F.3d 39, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11366, 2006 WL 1195685, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-monteiro-ca1-2006.