Norman Major Allen v. Commonwealth of VA ( 2002 )

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Judges Benton, Clements and Senior Judge Coleman
Argued at Richmond, Virginia
NORMAN MAJOR ALLEN
MEMORANDUM OPINION * BY
v. Record No. 2966-00-2 JUDGE JAMES W. BENTON, JR.
MAY 28, 2002
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND
Margaret P. Spencer, Judge
Craig W. Stallard, Assistant Public Defender
(Office of the Public Defender, on brief),
for appellant.
Marla Graff Decker, Assistant Attorney
General (Randolph A. Beales, Attorney
General, on brief), for appellee.
Pursuant to Code § 19.2-254, Norman Major Allen conditionally
pled guilty to possession of cocaine in violation of Code
§ 18.2-250. On appeal, Allen contends that police officers
unlawfully seized him and that the trial judge erred in denying
his motion to suppress cocaine obtained in a search that followed
the seizure. For the following reasons, we agree and reverse the
conviction.
I.
In reviewing the legality of a seizure, "we are bound by the
trial [judge's] findings of historical fact unless 'plainly wrong'
* Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not
designated for publication.
or without evidence to support them." McGee v. Commonwealth, 25
Va. App. 193, 198, 487 S.E.2d 259, 261 (1997) (en banc). On
appeal, the appellant has "'[t]he burden . . . to show that th[e]
ruling, when the evidence is considered most favorably to the
Commonwealth, constituted reversible error.'" Id. at 197, 487
S.E.2d at 261 (citation omitted).
Viewed in this light, the evidence proved that during the
evening hours of August 16, 2000, police officers were
"surveilling" two blocks of a city street when one of the officers
observed Allen's pickup truck enter the street. A police officer
testified that the truck stopped and a passenger exited the truck.
The passenger walked sixty-five feet to a person, who was
standing, and made a "hand-to-hand transaction in which the
passenger . . . gave money to the person . . . for a small item."
The officer testified that, although he did not know the color of
the item or the denomination of the money, his experience and
training as a police officer caused him to believe he had observed
a drug transaction.
While this was occurring, the truck made a u-turn and stopped
again. As the passenger returned to the truck, the officer
"radioed the other two officers, gave them a description of the
truck and of the passenger," and told them to "take down the
passenger." Uniformed officers, who had not seen any part of the
transaction, approached the truck before it departed. Officer
Joyner and other officers approached the passenger side of the
- 2 -
truck. When Officer Joyner got to the passenger side, the
passenger did something to cause him to believe the passenger put
something in his mouth. Officer Joyner said, "its in his mouth,"
asked the passenger to exit the truck, and searched the passenger.
He was unable to recover what he believed went into the
passenger's mouth.
Officer Gilliam approached Allen, who was in the driver's
seat, asked Allen what he was doing in the area, and told him to
remain in the truck. He also asked for Allen's driver's license.
After more questioning, he directed Allen to exit the truck and
stand to the side away "from the other part of the action."
Officer Gilliam testified that when "nothing was recovered from
the passenger," he asked for Allen's consent to search his truck.
When Allen hesitated, he informed Allen that the area was "a high
crime, high drug area." Officer Gilliam testified that Allen
"finally said go ahead." Officer Gilliam then directed the other
officers to search the truck, and he stood with Allen while the
other officers searched.
At some point after he obtained Allen's driver's license,
Officer Gilliam took it to his police vehicle to run a warrant
check. While he was doing so, Officer Joyner had ceased his other
activities and "stood close by" Allen. When Officer Gilliam
learned that warrants were on file for Allen, he directed Officer
Joyner to arrest Allen. Officer Joyner then searched Allen
incident to the arrest on the outstanding warrant.
- 3 -
At the conclusion of the suppression hearing, Allen's
attorney argued that the police had no reasonable articulable
suspicion to detain Allen and to demand his driver's license. He
argued that "once [the officers] dispelled the criminal suspicion
with regard to the passenger, . . . the seizure should [have]
end[ed]." In response, the Commonwealth argued that "there
certainly could have been a reasonable articulable suspicion . . .
[Allen] was in some way a conspirator to that transaction they saw
occur out there" and that "[i]f he's being held during that time,
he's being held pursuant to reasonable suspicion that he was a
co-conspirator to the transaction they saw occur a few minutes
earlier." The trial judge ruled that based on the passenger's
conduct, "the police had a reasonable suspicion to stop the
vehicle," and she denied the motion to suppress.
II.
Allen contends the trial judge erred in denying the motion to
suppress because the officer lacked reasonable suspicion or
probable cause to detain him. Allen concedes the detention of the
passenger was supported by reasonable articulable suspicion. He
contends, however, that when the officer obtained his driver's
license, the officer unlawfully seized him because the officer had
no reasonable suspicion he had engaged in criminal conduct. The
Commonwealth contends the officer had a reasonable suspicion of
drug activity to investigate the passenger and the only way to
- 4 -
confirm or dispel that suspicion was to detain both occupants of
the truck for questioning.
In every encounter, "Terry [v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968),]
requires reasonable, individualized suspicion," to support a
detention. Maryland v. Buie, 494 U.S. 325, 334 n.2 (1990). Thus,
an officer may not detain a person upon an "inchoate and
unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch.'" Moss v. Commonwealth, 7
Va. App. 305, 308, 373 S.E.2d 170, 172 (1988). According to well
established principles, "a person has been 'seized' within the
meaning of the Fourth Amendment . . . if, in view of all of the
circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would
have believed that he was not free to leave." United States v.
Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554 (1980). The trial judge ruled that
because the officers "had a reasonable suspicion to stop the
vehicle," they had a right to obtain Allen's driver's license.
Unlike Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 410 (1997), and
Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 107 (1977), where the police
stopped vehicles because of traffic violations, the police officer
here stopped the truck, not because of conduct of the driver, but,
rather, to detain the passenger. Even if we assume, under these
circumstances, that police officers may interfere with the
driver's liberty by ordering him to remain in the truck or to exit
the truck pending completion of their investigation of the
passenger, the police officer here did more. The officers
- 5 -
requested and kept Allen's driver's license and seized him for a
check of his status.
If a police officer lacks reasonable suspicion to detain the
driver of a vehicle, the "'encounter quickly [becomes] an
investigative detention once the [officer] received [the person's]
driver's license and did not return it to him.'" Richmond v.
Commonwealth, 22 Va. App. 257, 261, 468 S.E.2d 708, 710 (1996)
(citation omitted). Although the officers were not investigating
a traffic violation, the officer specifically requested Allen's
driver's license. The officer testified that when he examined the
driver's license, it had Allen's name and address and "looked to
be valid." The officer testified, however, that he "like[s] to
double check" and took the driver's license to his car to check
the information and "run a check for warrants." While he did so,
another officer stood next to Allen.
The Commonwealth contends the officers had a reasonable
articulable suspicion to believe that Allen was a co-conspirator
to the drug transaction and that the detention was therefore
reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. We disagree. The officers
suspected only that the passenger in Allen's truck was buying
drugs. The evidence here proved Allen had not been in close
proximity to the transaction. We hold that Allen's association
with the passenger, under these facts, did not give the officer a
reasonable basis upon which to believe Allen was involved in
criminal activity.
- 6 -
The Commonwealth additionally contends the officers had a
reasonable articulable suspicion to detain Allen while they
investigated the passenger. The Commonwealth argues that the
evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to it, proves the
officer requested Allen's identification during a valid
investigatory detention of the passenger. In Wilson and Mimms,
the Supreme Court held that where a vehicle already has been
lawfully stopped, the police may require the occupants of the
vehicle to exit or remain in the vehicle for the lawful
investigatory detention of another occupant. The Court deemed
this restraint on the occupants' liberty to be a minimal
additional intrusion that flowed from the stop of the vehicle.
Wilson, 519 U.S. at 412; Mimms, 434 U.S. at 111. Neither of those
cases holds, however, that requesting a driver, who is not the
focus of the stop, to produce a driver's license is not a separate
detention.
When the officer asked for Allen's driver's license, Allen
was required by Code § 46.2-104 to produce it. Although Officer
Gilliam testified on direct examination that he requested Allen's
driver's license after he asked Allen why he was in the area and
on cross-examination that he could not recall when he asked for
Allen's driver's license, the evidence clearly establishes that
the officer had Allen's license when he directed Allen to stand
beside the truck. Allen remained there while the officer took his
license to learn whether the driver's license was valid and
- 7 -
whether warrants were outstanding. Allen was not free to depart.
Moreover, given the events surrounding the taking of his driver's
license, it is clear that a reasonable driver in Allen's
circumstances would not have believed he was free to leave when
the officer obtained and kept his driver's license. Mendenhall,
446 U.S. at 554; Richmond, 22 Va. App. at 261, 468 S.E.2d at 710.
Even if we assume the lawfulness of the officer's request for and
examination of Allen's license during the investigatory detention
of the passenger, the officer's further detention of Allen by
retaining his license was unlawful because it exceeded the scope
of the investigatory detention of the passenger.
In summary, the evidence proved the officer had no reasonable
suspicion of criminal activity with respect to Allen. Instead,
the officer took his driver's license to determine his driving
status and to check for outstanding warrants. That was a seizure
based upon the officer's desire to independently investigate
Allen. He had no individualized suspicion of criminal conduct
concerning Allen, but, instead, he was acting on a hunch that he
might learn incriminating information.
For these reasons, we reverse the judgment of the trial judge
and dismiss the indictment.
Reversed and dismissed.
- 8 -