United States v. Ramos Morales ( 1992 )


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  • USCA1 Opinion









    December 31, 1992
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
    FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

    ____________________


    No. 92-1255

    UNITED STATES,

    Appellee,

    v.

    WILBERTO RAMOS-MORALES,

    Defendant, Appellant.


    ____________________

    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

    FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

    [Hon. Juan M. Perez-Gimenez, U.S. District Judge]
    ___________________

    ____________________

    Before

    Breyer, Chief Judge,
    ___________
    Bownes, Senior Circuit Judge,
    ____________________
    and Boudin, Circuit Judge.
    _____________

    ____________________

    Jose R. Aquayo for appellant.
    ______________
    Carlos A. Perez, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom
    ________________
    Daniel F. Lopez Romo, United States Attorney, was on brief for
    _______________________
    appellee.


    ____________________


    ____________________























    BREYER, Chief Judge. Federal agents of the Drug
    ____________

    Enforcement Agency ("DEA") arrested the defendant on drug

    charges. At that time, the defendant parked his car on the

    side of the road. The agents seized the car, impounded it,

    searched it, and found evidence that was later introduced at

    trial. The single issue on this appeal is whether the

    seizure of the parked car was lawful. The district court

    held that the seizure amounted to a "reasonable," hence

    lawful, impoundment of the car to prevent theft or

    vandalism. We agree.

    The basic facts, presented in the light most

    favorable to the government (whose witnesses the court

    explicitly credited), see, e.g., United States v. Newton,
    ___ ____ _____________ ______

    891 F.2d 944, 946 n.2 (1st Cir. 1989), are as follows:

    1. On July 12, 1991, two DEA agents, armed with
    an arrest warrant for the defendant, Wilberto
    Ramos Morales, spotted a man fitting Ramos'
    description, emerging from a white, two-story,
    apartment house on Calle Tulipan, in Carolina,
    Puerto Rico. A passerby told the agents that the
    man was indeed Ramos.

    2. The agents saw Ramos enter his car, parked on
    the sidewalk next to the house. Calle Tulipan is
    a dead end street. Ramos drove the car towards
    the far end of the street and turned it around.
    The officers blocked the open end of the street
    with their car, emerged from their car with
    weapons, pointed them at Ramos in his car, and
    told Ramos to stop.
























    3. Ramos, whose car was then "in the middle of
    the street," moved his car "towards the edge of
    the road," and stopped it "on the edge of the
    street." Ramos then got out of the car, the
    agents "put him in front of the vehicle with his
    hand[s] on top of it," and one of the agents took
    the keys from the "top of the car," where Ramos
    had left them.

    4. After arresting Ramos, the agents, following
    "DEA standard procedures," which apparently
    instruct agents not to "leave" a "vehicle in an
    unknown location," took the car "for protection
    and security purposes," -- i.e., "to protect"
    Ramos' "property" and "for the safety of the
    vehicle itself."

    5. The agents testified that they did not know
    where Ramos "usually lived or where he usually
    stayed." They had a list of five addresses they
    were to check in an effort to find him. The Calle
    Tulipan address was the last on the list. Ramos'
    car had a BCK license plate, registered at what
    was apparently a different ("Country Club"
    district) Ramos address.


    These facts would seem to bring this case well

    within the scope of the many precedents finding police

    impoundment to protect a car from theft or vandalism

    reasonable, and hence lawful. The Supreme Court itself has

    held that police may impound a car for this reason, provided

    they make their impoundment decision "according to standard

    criteria and on the basis of something other than suspicion

    of evidence of criminal activity." Colorado v. Bertine, 479
    ________ _______

    U.S. 367, 375 (1987). Lower courts have found that the

    police may lawfully impound a vehicle that would otherwise

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    remain on the side of a public highway or city street, see
    ___

    Rodriguez-Morales, 929 F.2d 780 (1st Cir. 1991), cert.
    _________________ _____

    denied, 112 S. Ct. 868 (1992); United States v. Velarde, 903
    ______ _____________ _______

    F.2d 1163 (7th Cir. 1990); United States v. Duncan, 763 F.2d
    _____________ ______

    220 (6th Cir. 1985); United States v. Griffin, 729 F.2d 475
    _____________ _______

    (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 830 (1984); United States
    _____ ______ _____________

    v. Taddeo, 724 F. Supp. 81 (W.D.N.Y. 1989), aff'd, 932 F.2d
    ______ _____

    956 (1st Cir. 1991); or in a private parking lot, see United
    ___ ______

    States v. Kornegay, 885 F.2d 713 (10th Cir. 1989), cert.
    ______ ________ _____

    denied, 495 U.S. 935 (1990); United States v. Johnson, 734
    ______ _____________ _______

    F.2d 503 (10th Cir. 1984); United States v. Staller, 616
    _____________ _______

    F.2d 1284 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 869 (1980).
    _____ ______

    The appellant tries to distinguish these cases by

    arguing that he parked his car off the street in a private
    ___

    parking place just outside his home. The main problem with

    this argument is factual. We must read the record favorably

    to the government, and the government's witnesses (whom the

    court generally credited) testified that the car was left

    "on the edge" of the road outside a building that they "did

    not know" (and reasonably need not have believed) was Ramos'

    home.

    The dissent tries to distinguish these cases by

    pointing out that the street in question is not a busy


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    public street where a long-parked car might seem out of

    place, inviting theft or harm; that it is not a private

    parking lot, belonging to another person; and that the

    agents had no reason to think the street was located in an

    especially crime-ridden area. But these distinctions do not

    seem convincing. For one thing, the significant risk that

    an abandoned car will be stolen or damaged does not seem

    confined to busy streets, "high crime" neighborhoods, or

    commercial parking lots. For another, the agents here, in

    impounding the car, followed standard DEA procedures. The

    existence and uniform application of such standard

    procedures can help prevent what the dissent sees as a major

    threat to privacy interests, namely that arresting officers

    will use "theft-prevention impoundment" (and the inventory

    search that usually follows) as a pretext for initiating

    searches for evidence of criminal activity. See Bertine, 479
    ___ _______

    U.S. at 375-76.

    Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Supreme

    Court in Bertine seemed specifically to hold that the
    _______

    Constitution permits arresting officers to impound, pursuant

    to standard procedures, an arrested person's automobile that

    might otherwise be left abandoned. Id. This result, the
    __

    Court said, reflects the government's legitimate interest in


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    reducing automobile theft and damage, the individual's

    diminished expectation of privacy in an automobile, and the

    tendency of clear, standard rules to control police abuses.

    Cf. South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 373 (1976)
    __ _____________ ________

    (according deference to police caretaking procedures

    designed to secure and protect vehicles and their contents

    within police custody). We do not see any significant

    distinction between the case at bar and that controlling

    authority, particularly as supplemented by the cases cited

    on pages 3 -4, supra. Indeed, Bertine, as far as the
    _____ _______

    Supreme Court's opinion there reveals, is identical to this

    case, but for the fact that the Bertine car was likely at
    _______

    the side of the road (the police having stopped, and

    presumably pulled over, the drunk driver) near a busy
    _____________

    intersection, while the car in this case was at the side of
    ____________

    the road in a residential neighborhood. (The dissent's
    _______________________________

    claim that the police in Bertine "could not have left the
    _______

    car where it was located at the time of Bertine's arrest"

    lacks any basis in the Supreme Court's description; indeed

    the police here seem to have had the authority to have left

    the car parked and locked.) And, as we have said, the

    distinction between busy, and nonbusy, streets, in terms of

    that Supreme Court case, and a host of later cases, seems a


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    distinction without a difference. To hold that busy

    arresting officers must leave a suspect's car behind if they

    lack information about the surrounding neighborhood's crime

    rate runs contrary to the rationale that underlies the case

    law authority, for it invites the very kinds of risks that

    the cases hold justify impoundment procedures such as the

    one here at issue.

    Given the extensive authority, this case seems to

    us basically to involve application of, not any extension

    of, existing law. And, we have not considered the case as

    if we were writing Fourth Amendment law on a blank slate.

    For these reasons, the judgment of the district

    court is

    Affirmed.
    ________




















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    BOWNES, Senior Circuit Judge, dissenting. Once
    _____________________

    again the Fourth Amendment has become a casualty of the "War

    on Drugs." The majority opinion treats the warrantless

    seizure of an automobile by the Drug Enforcement

    Administration as a routine matter and approves the seizure

    simply because the agents said that they followed DEA

    "standard procedures." I do not think that the requirements

    of the Fourth Amendment should be so cavalierly shunted

    aside.

    I start with the standard of review. A district

    court's findings in a suppression hearing are binding on

    appeal unless they are clearly erroneous. United States v.
    _____________

    Lanni, 951 F.2d 440, 441 (1st Cir. 1991). This means that we
    _____

    review the record of the suppression hearing in the light

    most favorable to the government. But our review does not

    end there. The district court's "ultimate conclusion" must

    be subjected to "plenary review." United States v. Sanchez,
    ______________ _______

    943 F.2d 110, 112 (1st Cir. 1991). See also, United States
    ___ ____ _____________

    v. Ibarra, 955 F.2d 1405, 1409 (10th Cir. 1992) ("[a]lthough
    ______

    the district court's factual findings are subject to a

    ``clearly erroneous' standard of review, the ultimate

    determination of the reasonableness of . . . [an officer's]

    seizure and search is a question of law to be reviewed by

    this court de novo.").





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    The court of appeals must also bear in mind that

    when a criminal defendant moves to suppress evidence seized

    without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the

    government bears the burden of proving that the warrantless

    seizure falls within one of the narrow exceptions to the

    warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. As the Court

    has stated:

    Over and again this Court has emphasized
    that the mandate of the Amendment
    requires adherence to judicial processes.
    See Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383
    ___ _____ ______________
    (1914); Agnello v. United States, 269
    _______ _____________
    U.S. 20 (1925). Only where incident to a
    valid arrest, United States v.
    _______________
    Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56 (1950), or in
    __________
    "exceptional circumstances," Johnson v.
    _______
    United States, 333 U.S. 10 (1948), may an
    _____________
    exemption lie, and then the burden is on
    those seeking the exemption to show the
    need for it, McDonald v. United States,
    ________ _____________
    335 U.S. 451, 456 (1948).

    United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 51 (1951). See also,
    ______________ _______ ___ ____

    United States v. Carbajal, 956 F.2d 924, 930 (9th Cir. 1992)
    ______________ ________

    (burden is on government to show reasonableness of

    warrantless search including demonstrating that search comes

    within one of the narrow exceptions to warrant requirement);

    Ibarra, 955 F.2d at 1409-10 (government bears burden of
    ______

    showing warrantless seizure of auto satisfies exception to

    Fourth Amendment); United States v. Rutkowski, 877 F.2d 139,
    _____________ _________

    141 (1st Cir. 1989) (government has burden of establishing

    entitlement to "plain view" exception to Fourth Amendment's

    warrant requirement); Wayne R. LaFave, 4 Search and Seizure,


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    11.2(b) at 218 n. 23 (2d ed. 1987 & Supp. 1991) (government

    always has burden of proving applicability of exception to

    warrant requirement).

    I now turn to the law on impoundment of motor

    vehicles which the majority either ignores or misstates. The

    United States Constitution guarantees "[t]he right of the

    people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and

    effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. . . ."

    U.S. Const. amend. IV. Generally, a search of private

    property is unconstitutional unless it is conducted pursuant

    to a properly issued search warrant. Katz v. United States,
    ____ _____________

    389 U.S. 347, 357 (1967). In a limited number of situations,

    however, warrantless searches have been upheld as

    "reasonable." One such exception to the warrant requirement

    arises when the police, in the exercise of their "community

    caretaking functions," Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 441
    ____ __________

    (1973), acquire temporary custody of a privately-owned

    automobile. In such circumstances the Supreme Court has held

    that a warrantless inventory search of the automobile made

    "pursuant to standard police procedures" and for the purpose

    of "securing or protecting the car and its contents" is a

    reasonable police intrusion which does not offend Fourth

    Amendment principles. South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S.
    ____________ ________

    364, 372 & 373 (1976). In Opperman, the police impounded a
    ________

    vehicle which had been parked in a no-parking zone. The



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    Court stated that the "authority of the police to seize and

    remove from the streets vehicles impeding traffic or

    threatening public safety and convenience is beyond

    challenge." Id. at 369.
    ___

    The Opperman Court identified three distinct
    ________

    interests which justify the inventory search of an

    automobile: (1) protection of the owner's property while in

    police custody; (2) protection of the police against claims

    regarding lost or stolen property; and (3) protection of the

    police from potential danger. Id. Before the need to
    ___

    protect these interests can arise, however, "the government

    must have legitimate custody of the property to be

    inventoried." United States v. Jenkins, 876 F.2d 1085, 1089
    _____________ _______

    (2d Cir. 1989) (citations omitted). See Illinois v.
    ___ ________

    Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640, 648 (1983); United States v. Pappas,
    _________ _____________ ______

    613 F.2d 324, 330 (1st Cir. 1979).

    The DEA agents testified at the suppression hearing

    that they impounded the vehicle to protect it from the risk

    of theft or vandalism, "and as part of the rules of the

    agency." The agents' perceived risk of theft or vandalism,

    however, was not supported by any facts regarding the

    character of the neighborhood, nor were the "rules of the

    agency" explained or put in evidence. The only evidence

    before the court was that the car was legally parked at the

    edge of a public street in a residential neighborhood. The



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    district court accepted the agents' "safety" justification

    without question and did not rely on the existence of DEA

    standard procedures to justify the seizure. The issue,

    therefore, is whether the agents were, under the facts of

    this case, justified in impounding Ramos' car to protect it

    and its contents. "Framed precisely, the critical question

    in cases such as this is not whether the police needed to

    impound the vehicle in some absolute sense, or could have

    effected an impoundment more solicitously, but whether the

    decision to impound and the method chosen for implementing

    that decision were, under all the circumstances, within the

    realm of reason." United States v. Rodriguez-Morales, 929
    _____________ _________________

    F.2d 780, 786 (1st Cir. 1991), cert. denied, 112 S. Ct. 868
    _____ ______

    (1992).

    The majority relies heavily on the Supreme Court's

    decision in Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367 (1987). I read
    ________ _______

    the Bertine facts differently than my brothers. In Bertine
    _______ _______

    the Court upheld municipal regulations of Boulder, Colorado,

    that gave its police officers the discretion to choose

    between impounding a car and parking and locking it in a

    public parking place, "so long as that discretion is

    exercised according to standard criteria and on the basis of

    something other than suspicion of evidence of criminal

    activity." Id. at 375. Bertine does not control the facts
    ___ _______

    of this case, as the majority mistakenly asserts. In



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    Bertine, the officers could not have left the car where it
    _______

    was located at the time of Bertine's arrest for drunk

    driving; they had to choose between parking the vehicle in a

    public lot or impounding it. The Court determined that the

    grant to the officers of such discretion and their exercise

    of that discretion were both reasonable.

    In this case, the officers had no reason to move

    Ramos' car. It was legally parked in a residential

    neighborhood. There was no evidence that the car was

    interfering with traffic, either automotive or pedestrian, in

    any way. The DEA agents stressed that the car was impounded

    to protect it from vandalism, but there was no evidence that

    cars parked in the neighborhood had been vandalized regularly

    or intermittently. The question here is not, as it was in

    Bertine, whether the police appropriately exercised their
    _______

    discretion to impound the car because they had to move it.

    Instead, the question is whether it was reasonable for the

    agents to impound the vehicle given the fact that it was

    lawfully parked in a residential area at the time of arrest.

    Courts have upheld the reasonableness of decisions

    by law enforcement officials to impound vehicles in cases

    where leaving the vehicle where it was would either pose a

    threat to public safety or present an inviting target for

    thieves or vandals. See, e.g., Rodriguez-Morales, 929 F.2d
    ___ ____ _________________

    at 785 (shoulder of a busy interstate highway when no



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    occupant properly licensed to drive); United States v.
    ______________

    Velarde, 903 F.2d 1163, 1166-67 (7th Cir. 1990) (same);
    _______

    United States v. Kornegay, 885 F.2d 713, 716 (10th Cir. 1989)
    _____________ ________

    (parked in private lot and police did not know identity of

    operator), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 935 (1990); United States
    ____ ______ _____________

    v. Brown, 787 F.2d 929, 932 (4th Cir.) (occupants appeared
    _____

    drunk, no known sober person was available to take custody,

    and car, if left unattended, could present a nuisance), cert.
    ____

    denied, 479 U.S. 837 (1986); United States v. Duncan, 763
    ______ _____________ ______

    F.2d 220, 224 (6th Cir. 1985) (arrest on public highway);

    United States v. Johnson, 734 F.2d 503, 505 (10th Cir. 1984)
    ______________ _______

    (parked in private lot, exposed to vandalism, and owner was

    inebriated); United States v. Griffin, 729 F.2d 475, 480 (7th
    _____________ _______

    Cir.) (neither occupant could legally remove car from

    emergency lane of highway and leaving it there would present

    hazard and theft risk), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 830 (1984);
    ____ ______

    United States v. Staller, 616 F.2d 1284, 1289-90 (5th Cir.)
    _____________ _______

    (legally parked in shopping mall parking lot, but arrested

    driver was from out of state and nobody else was available to

    assume responsibility), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 869 (1980);
    ____ ______

    United States v. Taddeo, 724 F. Supp. 81, 82-3 (W.D.N.Y.
    ______________ ______

    1989) (stopped in a bus lane on a busy six-lane highway near

    the center of downtown Rochester just prior to rush hour),

    aff'd, 932 F.2d 956 (2d Cir. 1991); United States v. 1988
    _____ ______________ ____

    B.M.W. 750IL, 716 F. Supp. 171, 173-74 (E.D. Pa.) (no
    _____________



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    licensed driver available to remove vehicle parked near

    street corner and exposed to risk of theft or vandalism),

    aff'd without opinion, 891 F.2d 284 (3d Cir. 1989).
    _____________________

    The majority cites many of these same cases in

    support of its conclusion that the impoundment of Ramos' car

    was legal. In so doing, the majority has failed to consider

    the factual differences between the cited cases and this

    case. Despite the clear factual differences from the line of

    cases supporting the reasonableness of decisions to impound

    vehicles for the protection of either the owner or the

    public, the district court accepted the agents' unsupported

    conclusions about the risks associated with leaving Ramos'

    car where it was: legally parked "at the edge of the

    street." Now the court of appeals compounds this error.

    The district court did find that two factors

    supported the reasonableness of the agents' determination

    that there would have been a serious threat of theft or

    vandalism had they left the vehicle where it was parked:

    first, that the officers were unsure about the actual

    residence of Ramos; and, second, that several people

    witnessed the arrest. In the words of the district court:

    at the time of the arrest, the agents
    were uncertain of the defendant's actual
    residence. Under these circumstances,
    the agents could have reasonably
    concluded that the defendant's vehicle
    could be subject to theft or vandalism if
    it remained parked where it was,



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    especially in light of the fact that
    several persons witnessed the arrest.

    Despite the reasonableness of the agents'

    uncertainty about Ramos' actual residence, that uncertainty

    had no significance for the perceived risk of theft or

    vandalism of his automobile. Those risks existed

    independently of Ramos' actual residence. Such risks are

    dependent upon the character of the neighborhood and the

    propensity for car theft and vandalism in the area. After

    all, the odds of the car being stolen or vandalized are less

    for a stranger who parks his car in an area with a low rate

    of car theft, than those for a resident of a high-risk area

    who parks his car outside his home. There was no evidence

    offered by the government at either the suppression hearing

    or the trial to support the characterization of the

    neighborhood in which Ramos and his car were found as one

    with either a high or low risk for car theft or vandalism.

    The location of the actual residence of Ramos is irrelevant

    to this determination. The alleged DEA "policy" against

    leaving vehicles of arrestees in "unknown locations" is

    overbroad, if not completely irrational.

    The second, and connected, reason supplied by the

    court in support of its ruling, that there were witnesses to

    the arrest, is simply not supported in the record of the

    suppression hearing. At the suppression hearing, the

    question of whether others were present near the scene of


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    arrest arose on four occasions. First, Agent Ramirez

    testified in response to questions posed by the prosecutrix

    about what happened when he asked a bystander whether the

    person he saw get into the Honda Accord was, in fact, Ramos:

    A I asked the person who was near on the house
    next to where his car was parked if he was
    Willy, and that person responded in the
    affirmative . . . .

    . . . .

    Q What happened to that individual that you had
    inquired from, if he was Willy?

    A At that moment I don't know what happened to
    him.

    Q Was he there when you arrested defendant Ramos
    Morales?

    A No madam, he was not.

    Second, Agent Ramon testified about what the agents did when

    they first spotted the Honda Accord registered in the name of

    Ramos:

    A [S]ince [we] did not see anybody on the
    streets we decided to wait, and so we
    established surveillance on that street
    which is a dead end street.

    Third, on cross-examination, Ramon testified that he did not

    remember seeing Vadiz next to Ramos' car just prior to the

    moment when Ramos entered his vehicle:

    Q [D]id you see another man next to that car,
    immediately next to Mr. Ramos's car?

    A Not that I recall, Sir.





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    Fourth, Vadiz, as a witness for the defendant, testified that

    he was present at the scene of the arrest and that DEA agents

    prevented Ramos from giving him custody of the car. The

    district court, in its suppression order explicitly rejected

    this testimony, stating: "[t]he agents further testified

    that the 19-year-old neighbor was not present at the time of

    defendant's arrest. After hearing the testimony of the

    agents and that of the neighbor, the Court finds the

    testimony of the agents more credible than that of Guido

    [sic] Vadiz."

    Therefore, there was no evidence in the record of

    the suppression hearing supporting the district court's

    finding that "several persons witnessed the arrest."1 Even

    if there had been such evidence at the suppression hearing,

    or at the trial itself, such evidence, without more, would

    not support a finding of probable cause to seize a vehicle

    without a warrant. It is difficult to imagine any arrest in

    a major urban area which is not witnessed by at least one

    bystander. Were that sufficient reason to justify the

    seizure of a car at the time of arrest, the limited exception

    to the warrant requirement based on exigent circumstances,

    such as the protection of public safety or the prevention of



    ____________________

    1 According to the government's own brief, "prior to the
    arrest, there were neighbors in the immediate area. During
    and after the arrest no one was within sight." Brief for
    Appellee at 9 n.5.

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    theft or vandalism, would soon swallow the rule. As the

    Tenth Circuit has noted, "Opperman cannot be used to justify
    ________

    the automatic inventory of every car upon the arrest of its

    owner. The justifications for the rule are too carefully

    crafted for this to be the intent." United States v. Pappas,
    _____________ ______

    735 F.2d 1232, 1234 (10th Cir. 1984).

    In United States v. Pappas, 613 F.2d 324 (1st Cir.
    _____________ ______

    1979), this court held that even when the government impounds

    a vehicle because its agents have reason to believe that it

    is subject to forfeiture under 21 U.S.C. 881(b)(4), it must

    fulfill the warrant requirement in the absence of exigent

    circumstances. Id. at 330. The Second Circuit recently
    ___

    agreed, holding that warrantless seizures under 881(b)(4)

    "must meet one of the recognized exceptions to the fourth

    amendment's warrant requirement." United States v. Lasanta,
    ______________ _______

    Nos. 91-1724, 91-1725, 92-1008, 1992 Allfeds WL 297090, at *3

    (2d Cir. Oct. 21, 1992).

    If the warrant requirement must be met in cases

    where the government has a legitimate, statutory

    justification for impounding a vehicle, surely the existence

    of a vague "agency policy" is no substitute for a warrant in

    the circumstances presented by this case. Bertine does not
    _______ ___

    stand for the proposition that so long as a DEA agent claims

    to be following standard procedures, he can seize an

    automobile without a warrant. In Bertine, the Court merely
    _______



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    held that when the police must remove a car from the scene of

    an arrest, they may, in accord with standard procedures,

    either park and lock the car in a public place or impound the

    vehicle and conduct an inventory search. The predicate to

    the Bertine rule was not met in this case. There was no
    _______

    evidence showing that the

    agents had any legitimate reason to move Ramos' vehicle. The

    majority has extrapolated from Bertine how the Court would
    _______

    decide this case. This may be a reasonable prediction, but I

    think we are restricted to the facts and holdings of Bertine
    _______

    as it was issued.

    In summary, a careful review of the record reveals

    that there was no evidence before the district court that

    Ramos' car was located in an area that exposed it to the risk

    of vandalism or theft, and the district court did not take

    judicial notice that the car was parked in such a

    neighborhood. There was no evidence to support the court's

    finding that there were witnesses to the arrest. The lack of

    certainty about the actual residence of Ramos was irrelevant

    as to whether sufficient exigent circumstances existed to

    justify the warrantless seizure of his automobile. Given the

    lack of supporting evidence in the record, I cannot join the

    majority.

    The majority completely ignores the issue of burden

    of proof. The government bears the burden of proof whenever



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    it seeks to justify warrantless seizures. Today, despite a

    lack of any supporting evidence, this court affirms the

    agents' naked conclusion that leaving Ramos' car where it was

    parked when Ramos was arrested presented a risk of theft or

    vandalism. This means that in the future, any time a DEA

    agent seizes a suspect's automobile without a warrant, all

    she need say is that she did so "to protect the car from the

    dangers of theft and vandalism." DEA agents will now surely

    wait until a suspect gets into his automobile before

    effecting an arrest because, once the suspect is arrested,

    the agents can impound the car and conduct an inventory

    search
    withoutprobablecauseand
    intheabsence
    ofexigentcircumstances.

    Today's decision is not compelled by current

    constitutional doctrine. As a court of appeals, we must

    recognize that our first duty is to uphold the Constitution

    as it has been interpreted by the Supreme Court. We ought

    not diminish and circumscribe the protections of the Bill of

    Rights in the absence of a clear command by the Supreme

    Court. The majority gives judicial sanction to the

    impermissible seizure of a citizen's automobile that violates

    the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. This ruling is,

    lamentably, another step in the judicial erosion of the

    freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.







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