United States v. Nelson

931 F. Supp. 194, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8154, 1996 WL 328700
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedJune 11, 1996
Docket6:95-cv-06038
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 931 F. Supp. 194 (United States v. Nelson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Nelson, 931 F. Supp. 194, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8154, 1996 WL 328700 (W.D.N.Y. 1996).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

LARIMER, Chief Judge.

Defendants in this case are charged in a thirteen-count indictment with various drug- and firearm-related offenses. Defendant Swyn Nelson (“Nelson”) has filed motions for *197 various forms of relief, which are now pending before the court.

I. Motion to Suppress Evidence in Connection with October 28, 1994 Arrest

A. Facts

Nelson moves to suppress identification testimony and physical evidence obtained in connection with his arrest by Rochester police officers on October 28, 1994. The court held a hearing on this motion on several days in February and March 1996.

The basis for this motion is Nelson’s assertion that probable cause was lacking for Nelson’s arrest, and that the circumstances under which two of the officers identified him on October 28 were unnecessarily suggestive. To evaluate these contentions, a brief summary of the relevant events is necessary.

On the night in question, Officer John C. Briggs was in his patrol car at around 12:20 a.m. when he saw a brown Camaro run a red light. He followed the Camaro, which shortly thereafter turned at an intersection without making a full stop. Briggs turned on his flashing lights, at which point the Camaro accelerated. Briggs gave chase and also radioed for assistance.

Officer Lamar Cousins responded to Briggs’s call, and was able to block the Ca-maro’s path with his vehicle. The Camaro stopped and a black male jumped out and ran away, throwing an object on the ground as he did so. The object was later recovered and found to be a gun. Briggs and Hans, his police dog, chased the suspect on foot. Cousins also briefly chased the suspect on foot but stopped when he heard another officer (presumably Briggs) yell that a police dog had been released.

Neither Briggs, Cousins, nor Hans caught up to the suspect. However, Officer Donald H. MeKeeby was also in the area in his' patrol car when he heard a radio report that officers were chasing an individual on foot a few blocks away. He drove to the scene and was told by an officer (MeKeeby was not sure which one) that the fugitive was a black male wearing dark clothing and that he had run down a certain alleyway. MeKeeby drove his vehicle to the area where he guessed the fugitive might be heading when a black male wearing dark clothing suddenly ran directly across McKeeby’s path; McKee-by’s car nearly hit him. MeKeeby stopped his car and gave chase on foot. He eventually caught up with and apprehended the suspect, who turned- out to be Nelson.

Officer Robert S. Roxstrom, who had also responded to the radio calls, then arrived on the scene to find Nelson in handcuffs in McKeeby’s custody. He took Nelson to the area where the Camaro had been stopped, and both Briggs and Cousins identified him as the suspect who had fled from the Cama-ro.

B. Probable Cause to Arrest

Nelson contends that Officer MeKeeby did not have probable cause to arrest him because the information that MeKeeby had at the time concerning the suspect’s appearance was insufficient to support the arrest.

Since MeKeeby arrested Nelson without a warrant, the arrest was valid only if MeKeeby had probable cause for the arrest. Probable cause exists when the authorities “have knowledge or reasonably trustworthy information of facts and circumstances that are sufficient in themselves to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that (1) an offense has been or is being committed (2) by the person to be arrested.” United States v. Jenkins, 876 F.2d 1085, 1089 (2d Cir.1989) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); see also Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 208, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2254, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979); Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 111, 95 S.Ct. 854, 861-62, 43 L.Ed.2d 54 (1975). A “probable cause determination does not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt; it is the mere probability of criminal activity, based on the totality of the circumstances, that satisfies the Fourth Amendment.” Hahn v. County of Otsego, 820 F.Supp. 54, 55 (N.D.N.Y.1993), aff'd, 52 F.3d 310 (2d Cir.1995).

Probable cause can rest upon the collective knowledge of the police rather than solely on that of the officer who .actually makes the arrest when there is some degree of communication between the two. United *198 States v. Webster, 750 F.2d 307 (5th Cir.1984), ce rt. denied, 471 U.S. 1106, 105 S.Ct. 2340, 2341, 85 L.Ed.2d 855, 856 (1985). When the arresting officer has no personal knowledge of any of the facts establishing probable cause, however, then the officer who issues the directive to arrest must himself have probable cause to arrest. Id. at 323.

It is clear that probable cause to arrest Nelson existed at the time of his arrest by McKeeby. Briggs himself had probable cause to arrest based on Nelson’s traffic violations and his attempt to flee after Briggs tried to pull him over. See United States v. Martinez-Gonzalez, 686 F.2d 93, 99 (2d Cir.1982) (defendant’s “hasty retreat” when officers justifiably approached him for questioning transformed officers’ reasonable suspicion into probable cause to arrest); United States v. Lopez, 1995 WL 852067 *7 (D.Vt.1995) (same). Thus, McKeeby was entitled to rely on Briggs’s radio call and the information that he received when he arrived on the scene that the suspect was a black male in dark clothing who had just run down an alleyway. The sudden appearance moments later of Nelson, who fit the suspect’s description, in the area where McKeeby surmised the suspect might be heading, as well as the fact that Nelson burst into the street without looking for oncoming vehicles first, more than justified McKeeby in pursuing and arresting Nelson.

Furthermore, under the circumstances that existed at the time, it was clearly reasonable for McKeeby at least to stop Nelson and detain him long enough to ascertain whether he was the suspect that the other officers had been pursuing. “Courts have time and again approved on-the-scene showups, occurring reasonably soon after the crime, as one of the best ways not only to catch the criminal but also to exonerate the innocent.” Dempsey v. Town of Brighton, 749 F.Supp. 1215, 1225 (W.D.N.Y.1990), aff'd, 940 F.2d 648 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 925, 112 S.Ct. 338, 116 L.Ed.2d 278 (1991). See also People v. Hicks, 68 N.Y.2d 234, 242, 508 N.Y.S.2d 163, 500 N.E.2d 861 (1986) (police acted reasonably in detaining defendant and transporting him a quarter mile so that witnesses could tell police whether he was one of the perpetrators). Thus, aside from the issue of whether there was probable cause to arrest Nelson, there was ample reason to detain him for purposes of a showup before Briggs and Cousins.

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Bluebook (online)
931 F. Supp. 194, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8154, 1996 WL 328700, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-nelson-nywd-1996.