People v. Mendoza ( 2020 )


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  • Filed 2/5/20
    CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
    IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
    FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
    DIVISION TWO
    THE PEOPLE,
    Plaintiff and Respondent,                   E071835
    v.                                                  (Super.Ct.No. SWF1707770)
    BLANCA LUNA MENDOZA,                                OPINION
    Defendant and Appellant.
    APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. John M. Davis, Judge.
    Reversed.
    Randall Conner, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and
    Appellant.
    Xavier Becerra, Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant Attorney General,
    Eric A. Swenson and Michael D. Butera, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and
    Respondent.
    1
    A jury convicted Blanca Luna Mendoza of transporting for sale more than four
    kilograms of cocaine based on evidence a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent
    acquired after a stop on Interstate 15. Mendoza sought to exclude the evidence, arguing
    the agent did not have reasonable suspicion she was engaged in criminal activity when he
    stopped her.
    The agent said he decided to stop Mendoza because she was driving in a known
    smuggling corridor in a vehicle which had crossed the United States-Mexico border in
    the prior week; she slowed and changed lanes after he pulled alongside her in an
    unmarked car, rolled down his window, and stared at her; she drove at approximately 50
    miles per hour to stay behind him; and she then refused to look at him when she
    ultimately passed him a few minutes later. The trial court held—albeit with
    reservations—that the stop was justified, and a jury later convicted her of transporting
    narcotics for sale. Mendoza appeals her conviction based only on the impropriety of the
    stop.
    We conclude the agent based his decision to stop Mendoza on insufficient
    evidence she was engaged in criminal activity. At bottom, the agent acted on a hunch,
    which is improper, even though—in this case—it proved correct. We therefore reverse
    the conviction and remand for further proceedings.1
    Our reversal makes it unnecessary to reach Mendoza’s challenges to her
    1
    sentence.
    2
    I
    FACTS
    A. The Decision to Stop Mendoza
    United States Border Patrol Agent Arturo Acosta testified for the prosecution at a
    hearing on Mendoza’s motion to suppress.
    He began by describing his experience and training. When he testified, Agent
    Acosta had been a border patrol agent for almost 10 years and a member of the High
    Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force for less than a year. With the task force, his
    responsibilities included patrolling, observing traffic, looking for illicit activity on the
    highways, and running records checks.
    Agent Acosta said his training included behavior analysis, which he described as
    “being able to—for us to be able to pull over a vehicle, we need reasonable suspicion. For
    me, a reasonable suspicion is a hunch of articulable facts that will allow us to pull over a
    vehicle. [¶] The explanation could be something simple, something simple as a lane
    change, the behavior or the person in the vehicle, the vehicle slowing down.”
    On the morning of November 8, 2017, Agent Acosta was patrolling in an
    unmarked car on Interstate 15 in San Diego County near the southern border of Riverside
    County. Agent Acosta said he was there as part of the drug interdiction task force, and the
    area he was patrolling is a major corridor for trafficking narcotics from Mexico.
    At approximately 9:45 a.m., Agent Acosta saw Mendoza’s blue Jeep Liberty
    traveling on I-15 near Highway 76. Consistent with his usual practice, he said, he ran her
    3
    plates and learned the vehicle had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border within the last week.
    “It was—what I do on [the] highway, I run vehicle plates, and I try to get any nexus to
    the border. So, I run plates and look at them. And this vehicle had recent nexus to the
    border when I saw it.” Agent Acosta also learned the car was registered to a woman who
    resided in Chula Vista, near the U.S.-Mexico border. On cross-examination, Agent
    Acosta said he obtained no other information about the car or the driver at that time and
    acknowledged there was nothing else about the vehicle that drew his attention.
    Based on the recent border crossing, Agent Acosta approached Mendoza and her
    vehicle. “So, the initial thing that I did, I saw that it had a nexus [to the U.S.-Mexico
    border]. I pulled up next to the vehicle to see who was driving the vehicle, see if it was a
    female, male, then determine if it’s the same person that was in the vehicle just by
    gender. And when I did that, I couldn’t see her. [¶] So, I rolled down my window, I
    looked over at her, and she looked over at me.” He said he believed he pulled alongside
    Mendoza on her passenger side and the two made eye contact after he rolled down his
    driver-side window. He said they maintained eye contact for a while because he
    remembered “leaning forward in the vehicle to get a better look when I think she got a
    really good look at me.”
    According to Agent Acosta, Mendoza’s reaction was cause for suspicion. He said,
    after “I introduced myself by rolling down the window, having her see [me], [and] me I
    see[] her” he was able to judge her reaction against how the general public drives.
    Whereas the public “don’t seem nervous they don’t seem to be erratic in lane changing,
    4
    slowing down,” Mendoza, “immediately slowed down in speed and then got behind me.”
    According to Agent Acosta, he moved his vehicle into the slow lane, to the right of her,
    but Mendoza “was not willing to pass me even though I slowed down to approximately
    50 miles an hour.” They drove like that—Agent Acosta ahead of Mendoza and one lane
    to her right—for about three miles. At that point, Mendoza passed Agent Acosta’s car on
    the left. He said she had both hands on the wheel and didn’t look at him as she passed.
    Agent Acosta decided to initiate a traffic stop and activated his patrol vehicle’s
    lights and siren once he was behind her. He described the totality of the circumstances
    warranting the stop like this: “So, the totality is based off of the nexus to the border—
    recent nexus to the border, female crossing it, female driver of the vehicle, driving
    behavior, lane changes behind me, speed, not passing me for—I believe it was
    approximately three miles even though I slowed down considerably because—in
    comparison to the general public that was on the highway that day, her rigid posture once
    I approached the vehicle again. All of that and I thought I had a reasonable suspicion to
    pull over the vehicle.”
    Once Mendoza had stopped, Agent Acosta approached the vehicle, identified
    himself as a border patrol agent, and began conducting a roadside interview in Spanish.
    During the interview, Agent Acosta noticed a black backpack on the passenger-side
    backseat of the car. He asked Mendoza for permission to search the vehicle and she
    consented. Inside the backpack, he found seven packaged bricks of cocaine, each
    weighing approximately one kilogram.
    5
    B. The Court Proceedings
    The Riverside County District Attorney charged Mendoza with transporting a
    controlled substance for sale (Health & Saf. Code, § 11352, subd. (a); count 1) and
    possessing a controlled substance for sale (Health & Saf. Code, § 11351; count 2). On
    both counts, they alleged Mendoza possessed more than four kilograms of cocaine.
    (Health & Saf. Code, § 11370.4, subd. (a)(2).) On the People’s request, the court
    dismissed count 2 and the corresponding enhancement allegation before trial.
    Mendoza moved to suppress the drug evidence on the same ground she asserts
    here on appeal—that the agent didn’t have reasonable suspicion to justify the stop.
    Defense counsel argued the agent simply jumped to unwarranted conclusions and had no
    basis reasonably to infer Mendoza was engaged in criminal activity. The prosecution
    argued the totality of the circumstances provided the agent with reasonable suspicion
    Mendoza was engaged in criminal activity.
    The trial court heard Agent Acosta’s testimony and noted how weak the
    justification was for making the stop. “I agree with pretty much everything the defense
    has said about the—about how weak it is [¶] . . . [¶] I agree, though, with the defense that
    this is really, really lightweight.”
    Nevertheless, the court denied the motion to suppress. “I don’t disagree with the
    defense that this is like the bottom of allowability for reasonable suspicion. I mean, it’s
    just—there’s a couple things there. But under the case law, they were articulable by the
    officer. [¶] Here’s the four things that are, whatever, five things, that I used because I
    6
    thought that . . . made this person suspicious. And that’s what they do on the freeway.
    And also, all he did was stop her to talk to her for a little bit. [¶] . . . I’m going to deny the
    motion, but I do agree that if this was taken up on appeal or whatever, that this is paper
    thin for reasonable suspicion. It certainly was in the officer’s mind, and he’s an
    experienced officer. [¶] And he was able to articulate four or five things. They were
    weak, but they were together in the totality. They were articulable reasonable suspicions.
    They weren’t something he made up. And they weren’t something that had nothing to do
    with anything. And so I’m going to deny the motion with the understanding that this is
    like the very bottom of what I would actually [¶] . . . approve. I think it’s pretty weak.”
    The drug evidence admitted, a jury found Mendoza guilty of transportation of
    narcotics for sale and found true the quantity enhancement allegation. At sentencing, the
    trial court imposed the low term of three years for the offense and five years consecutive
    for the enhancement. The court imposed a split sentence of eight years in county custody,
    divided between four years in county jail and four years of mandatory supervision.
    Mendoza filed a timely notice of appeal.
    II
    ANALYSIS
    Mendoza argues the trial court erred by denying her motion to suppress the
    evidence found during the search of her vehicle because law enforcement did not have
    reasonable grounds to stop her in the first place. Since the stop was unlawful, she argues,
    7
    the trial court should have suppressed the fruits of the search conducted after the stop.
    (People v. Loewen (1983) 
    35 Cal. 3d 117
    , 122-123 (Loewen).) We agree.
    The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects against
    unreasonable searches and seizures. (Terry v. Ohio (1968) 
    392 U.S. 1
    , 8-9.) The primary
    purpose of the Fourth Amendment is to “impose a standard of ‘reasonableness’ upon the
    exercise of discretion by government officials, including law enforcement agents, in
    order to ‘safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasions.’”
    (Delaware v. Prouse (1979) 
    440 U.S. 648
    , 653-654.) “A defendant may move . . . to
    suppress as evidence any tangible or intangible thing obtained as a result of a search or
    seizure” if “[t]he search or seizure without a warrant was unreasonable.” (Pen. Code,
    § 1538.5, subd. (a)(1)(A).) A traffic stop is a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth
    Amendment. (Delaware v. Prouse, at p. 653.)
    “It is settled that circumstances short of probable cause to make an arrest may
    justify a police officer stopping and briefly detaining a person for questioning or other
    limited investigation.” (In re Tony C. (1978) 
    21 Cal. 3d 888
    , 892, superseded on another
    ground as stated in People v. Lloyd (1992) 
    4 Cal. App. 4th 724
    , 733.) However, law
    enforcement officers are not free to detain citizens at will. “[T]o justify an investigative
    stop or detention the circumstances known or apparent to the officer must include
    specific or articulable facts causing him to suspect that (1) some activity relating to crime
    has taken place or is occurring or about to occur, and (2) the person he intends to stop or
    detain is involved in that activity.” (In re Tony C., at p. 893.)
    8
    Officers may properly “draw on their own experience and specialized training to
    make inferences from and deductions about the cumulative information available to them
    that ‘might well elude an untrained person.’” (United States v. Arvizu (2002) 
    534 U.S. 266
    , 273 (Arvizu).) However, the officer’s suspicion must be objectively reasonable.
    “[T]he facts must be such as would cause any reasonable police officer in a like position,
    drawing when appropriate on [their] training and experience . . . to suspect the same
    criminal activity and the same involvement by the person in question. The corollary to
    this rule, of course, is that an investigative stop or detention predicated on mere curiosity,
    rumor, or hunch, is unlawful, even though the officer may be acting in complete good
    faith.” (In re James D. (1987) 
    43 Cal. 3d 903
    , 919-920.)
    We exercise independent judgment to determine the legality of the search or
    seizure, but we defer to the trial court’s factual findings supported by substantial
    evidence. (People v. Suff (2014) 
    58 Cal. 4th 1013
    , 1053; People v. Ayala (2000) 
    23 Cal. 4th 225
    , 255.) We resolve factual conflicts in the manner most favorable to the trial
    court’s disposition of the suppression motion. (People v. Martin (1973) 
    9 Cal. 3d 687
    ,
    692.)
    Here, it was not objectively reasonable to suspect Mendoza was involved in
    criminal activity. Agent Acosta said Mendoza caught his attention initially only because
    she was driving in a known drug trafficking corridor in a vehicle that had crossed the
    U.S.-Mexico border approximately a week earlier.
    9
    There’s no question driving on the I-15 is not sufficient to warrant a stop.
    Interstate 15 is a heavily traveled stretch of highway. The portion of the I-15 in San
    Diego County is among the top 20 most traveled highway stretches in the United States,
    averaging 295,000 vehicles a day in 2008. (Office of Highway Policy Information, U.S.
    Dept. of Transportation, Most Travelled Urban Highways Average Annual Daily Traffic,
    https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/tables/02.cfm, as of Jan. 7, 2020.)
    According to the California Department of Transportation, in 2017 the average daily
    traffic on northbound I-15 between the Highway 76 intersection and the Mission Road
    intersection exceeded 146,000 vehicles. (California Department of Transportation,
    Caltrans Traffic Census Program, https://dot.ca.gov/programs/traffic-operations/census,
    as of Jan. 7, 2020.)2 “An ‘officer’s assertion that the location lay in a ‘high crime’ area
    does not elevate . . . facts into a reasonable suspicion of criminality . . . The spectrum of
    legitimate human behavior occurs every day in so-called high crime areas.’” 
    (Loewen, supra
    , 35 Cal.3d at p. 124.)
    Nor does Mendoza’s “nexus” to the border warrant a stop. The U.S.-Mexico
    border is the most crossed border in the world. (Glenday, Craig (2009) Guinness World
    Records 2009, Random House Digital, Inc. p. 457 [“in 2000, more than 290 million
    people crossed from Mexico into the USA”].) According to the United States Department
    2 We grant Mendoza’s motion for judicial notice as it concerns statistics regarding
    the volume of border crossings and daily traffic as reported by the U.S. Department of
    Transportation and the California Department of Transportation. (Evid. Code, §§ 452,
    subd. (h), 459, subd. (a).) In all other respects, we deny the motion.
    10
    of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 1,158,239 personal vehicles
    entered the United States from Mexico through the San Ysidro port of entry in November
    2017. (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Border Crossing
    Entry Data, https://www.bts.gov/content/border-crossingentry-data, as of Jan. 7, 2020.)
    Thus, though Mendoza’s vehicle’s recent border crossing and location on the I-15
    provided some reason to look into her activities further, they provided almost no basis for
    thinking she was involved in criminal activity. Those factors alone would draw into
    suspicion tens of thousands of people every day, perhaps more. The factors law
    enforcement rely on to justify a stop, if amenable to innocent explanation, “must serve to
    eliminate a substantial portion of innocent travelers.” (United States v. Foreman (4th Cir.
    2004) 
    369 F.3d 776
    , 781; see also People v. Valenzuela (1994) 
    28 Cal. App. 4th 817
    , 834
    [no reasonable suspicion where “[t]he criteria upon which [the agent] relied did not
    differentiate defendant from any number of innocent persons”].) Agent Acosta therefore
    needed some other basis for stopping Mendoza.
    The additional factors Agent Acosta described were simply insufficient to warrant
    the stop. The agent said he also considered the fact that Mendoza slowed and moved over
    behind him after he pulled alongside to inspect her vehicle. However, the manner of his
    approach is critical to evaluating Mendoza’s reaction. He acknowledged he drove an
    unmarked vehicle with no signs of its relation to law enforcement. As a result, when he
    pulled alongside her it was his conduct that looked suspicious, not hers. The agent said he
    drew even on her passenger side, couldn’t see her through his tinted windows, lowered
    11
    his window, and then stared at her. Indeed, he said he bent forward to get a better look
    and their eyes met. She reacted by taking fairly innocuous action to avoid him. Mendoza
    didn’t drive erratically, didn’t changed lanes repeatedly, and didn’t use other evasive
    maneuvers. She just slowed down and pulled behind him.3
    Given the fact that Agent Acosta drove an unmarked vehicle and did nothing to
    identify himself as law enforcement, the most natural interpretation of Mendoza’s
    conduct is that she sought to avoid him because she found his conduct threatening and
    potentially aggressive. Agent Acosta did not appear to make this connection but instead
    inferred she was trying to avoid him to cover up her criminal conduct.
    Mendoza’s conduct after getting behind the agent adds no basis for suspicion. The
    agent said he slowed down and then changed lanes to be on Mendoza’s right. He
    expected she would pass him at that point, but she instead slowed with him and drove at
    approximately 50 miles per hour in the second lane from the right to keep him in front of
    her. Agent Acosta inferred she was trying to avoid being stopped by law enforcement.
    But given the absence of evidence that she knew it was law enforcement who was
    inspecting her, the natural inference is she was trying to maintain a safe position with
    respect to a civilian driver who was behaving in a threatening manner toward a woman
    driving alone.
    3 The People rely on People v. Letner and Tobin (2010) 
    50 Cal. 4th 99
    , 147-148, as
    support for the proposition that Mendoza’s slowing down to fall behind Agent Acosta
    provided a basis for him to infer she was attempting to avoid contact with law
    enforcement. Among other distinguishing features of that case, the officer in Letner and
    Tobin followed the defendant in a marked patrol car. (Id. at p. 147.)
    12
    When Mendoza finally passed his vehicle, he said she kept both hands on the
    wheel and looked straight ahead. Her posture and comportment is consistent with any
    number of innocent explanations, for example she felt threatened by the fact that a
    stranger had pulled alongside her vehicle, rolled down his window, and stared at her. In
    any event, it was perfectly natural for Mendoza to keep her hands on the steering wheel
    and her eyes on the road, as Agent Acosta testified she did. (People v. Moore (1968) 
    69 Cal. 2d 674
    , 683 (Moore), overruled on another ground by People v. Thomas (1977) 
    19 Cal. 3d 630
    , 637; People v. 
    Valenzuela, supra
    , 28 Cal.App.4th at p. 828 [“[T]he inference
    that ‘nervousness’ existed and was based on defendant’s desire to avoid contact with
    Agent Hudson is pure speculation”].) Again, the reasons Agent Acosta articulated for
    suspecting Mendoza of criminal conduct are insufficient.
    We don’t mean to suggest the reactions of a person under observation by law
    enforcement can’t warrant a stop. They may, under the right circumstances. But for such
    a reaction to evince guilt, rather than general fear or caution, there must be some
    indication the person is aware they’re being observed by law enforcement. That element
    is absent here and sets this case apart from a case like Arvizu, where the defendant
    engaged in much more suspicious conduct on seeing a recognizable border patrol vehicle
    approach. 
    (Arvizu, supra
    , 534 U.S. at pp. 270-271.)
    The defendant in Arvizu also put out many more signals to warrant suspicion.
    First, the circumstances themselves were much more suspicious. The defendant was
    driving “along a little-traveled route used by smugglers to avoid [a border patrol]
    13
    checkpoint,” the agent knew the driver was passing through when officers would be
    leaving their backroads patrols to change shifts, and it was unlikely the driver and his
    family were on an innocent picnic outing because they had already turned away from
    known recreational areas in one direction and reaching those in another direction would
    have required a 40-to-50-mile trip on unpaved and primitive roads. 
    (Arvizu, supra
    , 534
    U.S. at pp. 268, 270, 277.) Second, the conduct of the people in the car, who knew border
    patrol was watching them, was much more unusual than Mendoza’s mild attempt to keep
    her distance from Agent Acosta. The agent noticed children in the back of the vehicle had
    their knees up “unusually high, as if their feet were propped up on some cargo on the
    floor,” and said the children “put their hands up at the same time and began to wave at
    [the agent] in an abnormal pattern . . . as if the children were being instructed,” a gesture
    which continued for a period of four or five minutes. (Id. at p. 270.) The setting, the
    evidence that the people knew they were being observed by law enforcement, and their
    unusual conduct gave the agent in that case a strong basis to suspect they were engaged in
    criminality. Here, the agent stopped Mendoza while she drove on a major highway
    displaying nothing but ordinary nervousness after being accosted by an unfamiliar man
    whose connection with law enforcement was not evident.
    Of course, we must consider all the factors Agent Acosta identified together. (U.S.
    v. Valdes-Vega (2013) 
    738 F.3d 1074
    , 1078-1079.) But the factors he articulated were not
    sufficient even in their totality, and even accepting that Mendoza’s slow speed, lane
    change, and rigid posture indicated signs of nervousness under scrutiny. We therefore
    14
    conclude the agent essentially operated on a hunch, not reasonable suspicion.4 
    (Loewen, supra
    , 35 Cal.3d at pp. 128-129 [“[S]ince the pickup was not driven erratically, and
    neither occupant’s gestures were otherwise objectively suspicious, the fact that the pickup
    continued on, even at an accelerated pace, was not reasonably indicative of criminal
    behavior”].) Indeed, that’s how Agent Acosta articulated his own understanding based on
    his “behavior analysis” training: “For me, a reasonable suspicion is a hunch of articulable
    facts.” Respectfully, a hunch is not enough, and the totality of evidence supporting
    reasonable suspicion must be something more than the fact that a driver in a known crime
    area executed a lane change, slowed down, and refused to acknowledge the scrutiny of a
    law enforcement officer who was not identified as such.
    Our Supreme Court’s opinion in People v. Moore supports our conclusion. There,
    a police officer observed a man making a telephone call from a public phone booth in an
    area of high narcotics traffic. 
    (Moore, supra
    , 69 Cal.2d at pp. 677-678.) The man seemed
    to see the officer and then “moved from a comfortable position in the telephone booth,
    and turned his back on the police car. Defendant appeared nervous. The officer thought
    4 The People rely on United States v. Raygoza-Garcia (9th Cir. 2018) 
    902 F.3d 994
    , 1000-1001 and U.S. v. Cheromiah (10th Cir. 2006) 
    455 F.3d 1216
    , 1218-1219 to
    support the reasonableness of Agent Acosta’s suspicion, but the defendants in those cases
    exhibited many more signs they were engaged in criminal conduct. In Raygoza-Garcia,
    the agents determined the vehicle had recently crossed the border multiple times, crossed
    again the same morning, and a different person was driving the vehicle. In Cheromiah,
    the vehicle had temporary license plates, drove on a “well-known circuitous route
    frequently used by smugglers to avoid the Border Patrol checkpoints,” and the agents
    observed someone in the back of the van “diving down” when law enforcement came into
    view.
    15
    that defendant ‘was trying to avoid’ him.” Considering his nervous conduct together with
    “‘the area and the surrounding circumstances,’” the officer detained the man. (Ibid.) Our
    Supreme Court held the detention was invalid. The Court held “[t]o hold that police
    officers should in the proper discharge of their duties detain and question all persons in
    that location or all those who act nervous at the approach of officers would for practical
    purposes involve an abrogation of the rule requiring substantial circumstances to justify
    the detention and questioning of persons on the street.” (Id. at p. 683.) We conclude the
    same logic applies here.
    Indeed, the Moore case would require the same result even if Agent Acosta had
    approached Mendoza in a marked border patrol vehicle. First, the setting here was far less
    suspicious than in Moore, where the police officer saw the suspect in an area where “[t]he
    officer had made several narcotics arrests” and he knew “addicts [went] to th[e] location
    to make purchases from the street peddlers.” 
    (Moore, supra
    , 69 Cal.2d at p. 678.) As
    we’ve noted, though the I-15 is a known drug trafficking corridor, it also accommodates
    far more traffic for legitimate business and personal travel. Driving on the highway—
    even within a week of driving across the border—is far less reason for suspicion than
    loitering in an area known as a locus for street drug sales. Second, Mendoza’s reaction to
    the officer’s presence was as innocuous as the reaction of the defendant in Moore. There,
    the officer said the defendant saw the police car enter the parking lot and changed
    positions in a telephone booth, from a comfortable position to a more awkward position
    seemingly to avoid the police. (Ibid.) Mendoza did nothing more than attempt to avoid
    16
    Agent Acosta here. She saw someone pull alongside her, lower his window, and try to
    make eye contact. She reacted by slowing to get behind the other driver and slowing
    more when the other car slowed with her. She then took a few minutes before deciding to
    pass him and refused to look over as she passed. This demonstrates nothing more than
    nervousness under observation and does not warrant a stop, particularly when the other
    circumstances were so innocuous. (Id. at p. 683.)
    We therefore agree with the trial court that the justification for the stop was “paper
    thin for reasonable suspicion.” We disagree, however, with the court’s conclusion that the
    agent’s articulated reasons were enough to paper over the problems with the decision to
    stop Mendoza’s vehicle. It’s not enough that the agent “was able to articulate four or five
    things” to justify the stop, or that those things “weren’t something he made up . . . [or]
    weren’t something that had nothing to do with anything.” The Fourth Amendment
    requires more.
    To initiate a stop, an agent must have an objectively reasonable basis for
    suspicion. The agent in this case did not have such a basis. Nothing about Mendoza’s car
    suggested she might be involved in criminal activity, and though she sought to avoid the
    agent, the evidence doesn’t suggest she knew he was law enforcement. That fact
    undercuts the agent’s inference that she was trying to avoid detection of criminal conduct,
    but given the setting, Mendoza’s reaction to being observed was so minor it wouldn’t
    provide adequate ground for suspicion even had the agent been driving a marked law
    enforcement vehicle. We therefore conclude the agent acted without a reasonable basis
    17
    for suspicion when he stopped Mendoza, and the trial court erred in denying her motion
    to suppress.
    We recognize the trial court credited Agent Acosta’s testimony and we do not
    mean to suggest he did not testify in good faith. However, in this case, Agent Acosta’s
    “good faith suspicion” Mendoza was “engage[d] in criminal activity was not reasonable.
    None of the . . . factors [he] testified to . . . ‘mysteriously bec[a]me imbued with an aura
    of guilt merely by viewing them in their ‘totality.’’” 
    (Loewen, supra
    , 35 Cal.3d at p. 129.)
    Any amount times zero equals zero. (Ibid.)
    III
    DISPOSITION
    We reverse the judgment.
    CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
    SLOUGH
    Acting P. J.
    We concur:
    FIELDS
    J.
    MENETREZ
    J.
    18