United States v. Torres

341 F. Supp. 3d 454
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 20, 2018
DocketNo. 1:17-cr-00392
StatusPublished

This text of 341 F. Supp. 3d 454 (United States v. Torres) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Torres, 341 F. Supp. 3d 454 (M.D. Pa. 2018).

Opinion

Yvette Kane, District Judge

Before the Court is Defendant Michael E. Torres ("Defendant")'s motion to suppress evidence pursuant to the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Doc. No. 22.) For the reasons explained herein, the Court will deny the motion.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background1

On October 31, 2017, minutes before the scheduled 6:00 p.m. start of trick-or-treating for the children of York, Pennsylvania on Halloween evening, Officer Steven Pickel ("Officer Pickel"), a patrol officer employed by the York City Police Department, was on routine patrol in the west end neighborhood of York. (Doc. No. 44 at 4:1-25, 5:1-3.) The west end is a high-crime area and, in Officer Pickel's assessment, experiences "a lot of drug incidents, shooting incidents, homicides, aggravated assaults, burglaries, [and] robberies." (Id. at 5:24-25, 6:1-2.) As a patrol officer, Officer Pickel regularly "receive[s] reports of shots fired in the west end area" (id. at 6:7-8), and during the months of October and November, he receives "reports of shots fired ... multiple days per week" (id. at 6:19-22). While a nearby neighborhood known as the college area also experiences a high level of crime, that criminal activity consists largely of "burglaries, vehicle thefts, [and other] things of that nature." (Id. at 5:20-23.)

A few minutes before 6:00 p.m., just as the sun was going down, in a neighborhood of York that "bridges the gap between the college area and the west end" (id. at 7:10-13), Officer Pickel traveled west on King's Mill Road and "turned north onto South Penn Street" (id. at 7:20-21). As he turned the corner to proceed north onto South Penn Street, he encountered "a male in a black car" who "threw ... both his arms out the window" to flag down Officer Pickel, and did so in an excited manner.2 (Id. at *4587:20-24, 58:1-9.) The eyewitness's hand gestures caused Officer Pickel to think "that he was trying to flag [him] down to speak with [him]." (Id. at 8:1-3.) Upon being confronted by the eyewitness, Officer Pickel stopped to talk to the eyewitness from his police vehicle, as the eyewitness "had his window rolled down where he had his hands out." (Id. at 8:11-13.) Officer Pickel recalled that the eyewitness "was an older black gentleman" with "a salt-and-pepper beard" who was wearing "a black peacoat type jacket." (Id. at 8:15-17.) As to his conversation with the eyewitness, Officer Pickel testified as follows:

He told me - so he pointed and told me that - there was a male that was walking on the bridge, which was the east side of the bridge. He was the only pedestrian on the bridge. And he told me that that male, who was wearing a black jacket with his hood up, blue jeans, and black sneakers, pulled a gun out of his, out of like - like, off his person and fired it twice into the old factory building which is across the street on the west side.

(Id. at 8:19-25, 9:1.) Officer Pickel further testified that he confirmed with the eyewitness that he was referring to the individual walking on the bridge, and that the eyewitness was "adamant" that this individual had "fired two rounds" into the building. (Id. at 42:11-17.) Officer Pickel subsequently identified the man to whom the eyewitness was referring as Defendant. (Id. at 9:17-18.)

Officer Pickel then "radioed to county control" for assistance, knowing that at that time of the day, there were not "as many people out in the street that would be able to help right away, so [he] got on the radio to get more units to get [police officers] out of the station to come assist." (Id. at 9:21, 10:2-5.) At this point, Officer Pickel began to follow Defendant - who was walking - from his patrol vehicle. (Id. at 10:6-7.) Officer Pickel testified that before he began to follow Defendant, he did not ascertain the eyewitness's name or the license plate number of the vehicle the eyewitness was driving. (Id. at 10:9-15.)3 Observing that for the duration of his conversation with the eyewitness, Defendant continued to walk "to the other side of the bridge and then Stone Avenue" (id. at 10:18-20), Officer Pickel stated that "based on [his] training and experience, if you allow people to get too far away ... [Defendant] could have gotten down breezeways [and] cut back through the little cuts that are all over the city where it would have been difficult to locate him if he did start to run away or cut down through one of those other ... areas" (id. at 10:25, 11:1-6). Based on the information conveyed to him by the eyewitness, Officer Pickel viewed Defendant as potentially dangerous and "felt that was imperative to make sure that [the police] figured out what was going on and make sure nobody got hurt." (Id. at 11:9-15.)4 Officer Pickel further noted that "because [he] was the only officer in the immediate area at that time, [he] felt it most important to make sure" that he "kept [his] eyes on [Defendant] instead of going immediately over [to the building], because if [he] would have gotten out of the patrol vehicle to look for shell casings or damage, then [Defendant] would *459have been long gone by then." (Id. at 12:22-25, 13:1-2.)

While being followed by Officer Pickel, Defendant continued walking at a casual pace and proceeded "north on the east side of South Penn Street." (Id. at 15:23-25.) Officer Pickel continued to follow Defendant in his patrol vehicle while he informed other police units of his and Defendant's respective locations and waited until more units were "in the area to attempt to stop [Defendant] and see what was going on." (Id. at 15:1-4.) Officer Pickel waited for assistance from additional units due to the report that Defendant "fired a firearm into a building" and that, in light of such information, it was possible that "there would have been somebody near the building" at risk of being shot. (Id. at 15:8-13.) Officer Pickel also stated that based on such possibilities, "it was for the sake of officer safety and the safety of others around in the area" to ensure that "enough units [were] available to basically surround the subject and make sure that everything ... was contained." (Id. at 15:19-23.) As he followed Defendant, Officer Pickel noted that Defendant had seen him.5 (Id. at 16:5-8, 18-25.) In addition, the eyewitness subsequently "drove up next to" Officer Pickel, whose driver's side window was up, and appeared to mouth something to Officer Pickel, who "wasn't sure what it was" that was being communicated. (Id. at 17:5-12.) At this time, Officer Pickel "was trying to stay focused on where [Defendant] was and what he was going, so [he] motioned for ... [the eyewitness] to continue [driving] ... because if something were to happen, [he] didn't want [the eyewitness] to be caught in the middle of it." (Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
341 F. Supp. 3d 454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-torres-pamd-2018.