United States v. Murphy

703 F.3d 182, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24904, 2012 WL 6013773
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedDecember 4, 2012
DocketDocket 11-2978-cr
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 703 F.3d 182 (United States v. Murphy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Murphy, 703 F.3d 182, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24904, 2012 WL 6013773 (2d Cir. 2012).

Opinion

LOHIER, Circuit Judge:

In 2010 a Kansas Highway Patrol (“KHP”) trooper stopped a car along a highway in Kansas and discovered cocaine and other evidence after one of the defendants in the car, Michael Webster, consented to a search. Both defendants were arrested, eventually made inculpatory post-arrest statements, and were indicted. After a hearing, the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (Hurd, J.) issued an order suppressing both the physical evidence seized during the car search and the defendants’ post-arrest statements on the grounds that the trooper had illegally stopped the car, the subsequent consent to search the car was tainted by the illegal stop, the defendants were not properly informed of their rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and neither defendant waived those rights.

Relying principally on a videotape recording of the encounter, the Government appeals from the District Court’s order, arguing that the defendants’ car was never “seized” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and, alternatively, that the subsequent consent to search was untainted by the initial seizure. It also maintains that the Miranda warnings given to the defendants were valid. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

The following facts are taken from the District Court’s findings of fact and the record developed during the suppression hearing, including the videotape and audiotape recordings that were introduced as evidence.

1. The MVR Equipment

In June 2010, KHP Trooper David Stahl stopped a car driven by Webster, with defendant Michael Murphy as a passenger. Much but not all of the episode was recorded by a mobile video/audio recording (“MVR”) unit installed between the front windshield and dashboard of Trooper Stahl’s patrol car. 1 MVR units continuously capture and record footage to a DVD whenever a recording is started. There are various ways to start a recording: (1) activation of the patrol car’s emergency lights or emergency siren, (2) activation of the trooper’s wireless microphone, or (3) a collision involving the patrol car. MVR units are configured also to provide automatic “pre-event recording,” so that “whenever an auto-record even[t] ... happens, the footage actually recorded to the DVD will include what happened for ap *186 proximately thirty seconds before the event that triggered the automatic recording.” 2 Although a trooper can stop the MVR recording by turning off the patrol car’s emergency lights, sirens, and wireless microphone, the parties agree that a trooper can also manually stop the MVR’s recording function while leaving the patrol car’s emergency lights on.

2. The Seizure and Search of the Car

On the day of the stop, Trooper Stahl put ruse drug checkpoint signs on the eastbound side of Interstate 70 (“1-70”) in Kansas, so that they were visible to cars approaching exit 322 (“the Exit”). He then parked his patrol car in a turnaround lane connecting I-70’s eastbound and westbound lanes. From this position, Stahl could see the eastbound traffic approaching the Exit through his rearview mirror.

During the suppression hearing, Trooper Stahl provided contradictory testimony about what he did after pulling into the turnaround lane. He first testified that he “turned [his] back lights on so that traffic coming along, when they see the signs, they see my lights up ahead” (emphasis added). He later testified that he turned on his front emergency lights as he pulled into the turnaround. In any event, the DVD from the MVR unit in Stahl’s patrol car contains a 19-second “pre-event” segment that was automatically recorded because Stahl activated his emergency lights after pulling into the turnaround. Stahl explained that he manually turned off the MVR unit after activating his emergency lights to avoid wasting film while he waited in the turnaround.

Shortly after parking in the turnaround, Trooper Stahl saw the defendants’ car slow as it approached the ruse signs traveling eastbound, exit 1-70 by the eastbound exit ramp, and then turn and begin driving up the opposite, westbound entrance ramp to the highway. Stahl followed the defendants’ car onto the westbound ramp, at which point the car stopped on the side of the ramp.

Precisely why the defendants’ car stopped when it did remains the subject of heated dispute. Webster testified that he stopped the car because he “noticed the lights on the [patrol car’s] front grill[e] were flashing, and [he] believe[d] the lights on the top of the vehicle were flashing.” In contrast, Trooper Stahl testified that Webster stopped voluntarily and that the patrol car’s rear emergency lights (which would not have been visible to Webster), rather than its front emergency lights, were activated.

During the roughly fifteen minutes after the car stopped, Trooper Stahl asked the defendants for proof of identification and other documents and asked the KHP to conduct record checks of the defendants, which revealed that over 52 pounds of marijuana were seized nine months earlier from a car in which Murphy was a passenger. In addition, according to Stahl, Webster appeared “tense and nervous” throughout the stop. Stahl also smelled fresh paint — a possible sign, he testified, that the car had recently been modified to conceal drugs. Moreover, Murphy provided contradictory information regarding the defendants’ travel route, variously suggesting that they had traveled from Los Ange-les and from Las Vegas.

The videotape recording of the stop, which we have reviewed, begins with the *187 defendants’ car, a Honda, already stopped on the entrance ramp, and Trooper Stahl’s patrol car parked behind it. Reflections of white flashing lights are visible in the rear bumper of the Honda. Stahl is seated in the patrol car, apparently awaiting the KHP record checks, while the defendants remain in the Honda. While waiting, Stahl recorded an audio narrative of the events leading to that point, during which he clearly states that he “[s]topped this vehicle at 1-70.” Stahl testified that he initiated this recording by activating the MVR with his belt microphone when he returned to his patrol car after obtaining the defendants’ identification and other papers. 3

After the record checks were completed, Trooper Stahl walked to the passenger side of the Honda, returned the defendants’ papers, placed his hands on the car door, and told Webster that he was “just going to give [him] a warning on the [failure to] signal.” Webster asked Stahl about getting gasoline, and Stahl answered that a gasoline station was 13 miles away. Stahl then took one step away from the Honda and began to turn toward his patrol car; but, after not more than two seconds, he leaned back into the Honda and asked the defendants if they would mind answering “a few other questions,” explaining that there had been “a lot of problems with illegal narcotics” in the area.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
703 F.3d 182, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 24904, 2012 WL 6013773, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-murphy-ca2-2012.