United States v. Warren

997 F. Supp. 1188, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3167, 1998 WL 107979
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedMarch 10, 1998
Docket2:96-cv-00181
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 997 F. Supp. 1188 (United States v. Warren) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Warren, 997 F. Supp. 1188, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3167, 1998 WL 107979 (E.D. Wis. 1998).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

CURRAN, District Judge.

Tanglyan Marie Leonard is charged with conspiring to distribute and with possessing with the intent to distribute in excess of 100 kilograms of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) & 846 and with possessing with intent to distribute approximately 23.1 kilograms of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). After being arraigned and pleading not guilty, Leonard moved to suppress all evidence seized from her luggage at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by officers of the Milwaukee County Sheriffs Department Drug Interdiction Unit as well as any statements she made to law enforcement officers. See Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(b). Leonard contends that the search of her luggage was carried out by the Sheriff’s deputies without a warrant, probable cause, or consent in violation of her Fourth Amendment rights.

I. PROCEEDINGS BEFORE MAGISTRATE JUDGE

A. INITIAL HEARING

Pretrial motions were referred to Magistrate Judge Callahan who held an evidentiary hearing on the motion to suppress on December 11, 1996. During this hearing; arresting officer Carlton Moore, a detective with the Milwaukee County Sheriff Department’s Narcotics Interdiction Unit, testified that on September 6, 1996, he observed a woman who had arrived on a “red eye” flight from Los Angeles (Midwest Express flight # 976) who appeared to be nervous and was looking around suspiciously. 1 As luck would have it, the woman (later identified as Defendant *1190 Asabi Cade) left her ticket on her waiting room seat when she went to the restroom. Moore took the ticket to the check-in counter for safe keeping after reading the ticket to determine how the woman had paid for it (through a travel agent) and where she was going (Cleveland on Skyway Airlines flight # 180).

Moore regarded these facts as suspicious, so he proceeded to the area where he could surveil the baggage being unloaded from the Los Angeles flight. There he found that at least thirteen bags from the Los Angeles flight had been loaded onto a conveyor vehicle for transfer to a connecting flight to Cleveland. Moore noted that many of the bags were black. After palpating them, he found that all the bags were heavy and solid. Most importantly, he said that the smell of marijuana emanating from the bags was so strong that it made his eyes water. His partner, Deputy Dennis Konkel, testified that he also observed the bags on the conveyor and detected a “faint” smell of marijuana. The officers then summoned Deputy Susan Hanson and her drug detection dog, Flea.

Hanson, who was off duty, believes that she was paged at home at about 5:50 a.m. and that she reached the airport about half an hour later. Meanwhile, Defendant Leonard and three other women who had aroused Moore’s suspicion had been led out of the waiting room, first to another waiting area, then to the Sheriffs office at the airport. Deputy Hanson estimated that the Sheriffs office was a distance of about two blocks from the waiting room. The office is an enclosed room not frequented by the public.

The luggage was brought inside to a baggage room. By the time Hanson and the dog Flea arrived at this room, the connecting flight to Cleveland was in the process of boarding. Before bringing Flea into the room, Deputy Hanson, with the help of airport baggage handlers, placed the thirteen bags destined for Cleveland on the floor. She then “breathed” the bags by standing on them, thereby expelling air and odor. At this point Flea was brought into the room where he proceeded to sniff the wall. 2 After being directed to the bags, the dog finally alerted to a blue tapestry bag which ultimately was found to belong to Leonard’s co-defendant Katherine Morris. Deputy Konkel testified that this alert occurred about 7:50 a.m. See Transcript of Proceedings of December 11, 1996, at 112. Moore then directed that all thirteen bags be brought to the Sheriffs office where the four women had been taken. By this time the women and their luggage had missed the Skyway flight # 180 which had departed for Cleveland at about 6:05 a.m.

At the Sheriff’s office, Leonard identified two of the thirteen bags as hers. 3 Moore testified that he opened these bags with her consent and found marijuana. Defendant Leonard was then arrested at approximately 8:00 a.m. See Transcript of Proceedings of December 11,1996, at 112.

Having heard this testimony, the Magistrate Judge found that Deputy Carlton Moore had reasonable suspicion of the presence of marijuana which justified the temporary detention of Leonard’s two suitcases and that Leonard subsequently consented to the search of her bags. Therefore, he recommended that the Defendant’s motion to suppress be denied.

B. REHEARINGS

After this initial suppression hearing, Leonard’s counsel learned that Deputy Moore was being investigated for misconduct which included conducting illegal searches at *1191 the airport. After obtaining and reviewing Moore’s employment.records, the Magistrate Judge held three more evidentiary hearings. Moore invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and did not testify! The defense called additional witnesses who testified that Moore opened pieces of luggage before he summoned Deputy Hanson and Flea, and before he had allegedly obtained the “consent” of the Defendants to open the bags. 4

On August 21, 1997, the Magistrate Judge reconsidered his prior decision denying Leonard’s motion to suppress and recommended that the motion be granted. He found that Deputy Moore was not .credible and that Leonard had not validly consented to the search of her luggage. The government attempted to justify the search as inevitable discovery, but the Magistrate Judge ruled that the doctrine of inevitable discovery did not apply under the circumstances of this case. He found that: “[T]he government has not presented any evidence which would allow me to conclude that “Flea” certainly (or even probably) would have “hit” on Ms. Leonard’s bags.” Recommendation to' the Honorable Thomas J. Curran That Tanglyan Marie Leonard’s Motion to Suppress Be Granted (issued August 21,1997) at 70.

The Magistrate Judge went on to explain that:

Moreover, the Seventh Circuit has clearly stated that what makes a discovery “inevitable” is not probable cause alone, but probable cause plus a chain of events that would have led to a warrant (or another justification) independent of the search. [U.S. v.]Brown, 64 F.3d [1083]at 1085 [7th Cir. 1995].

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

Related

State v. Topanotes
2003 UT 30 (Utah Supreme Court, 2003)
State v. James
1999 UT App 17 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1999)
United States v. Phillip W. Hammons
152 F.3d 1025 (Eighth Circuit, 1998)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
997 F. Supp. 1188, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3167, 1998 WL 107979, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-warren-wied-1998.