United States v. Rubio-Sepulveda, 237 F. Supp. 3d 1116

Defendant was investigated by the DEA Front Range Task Force (FRTF) since at least Aug. 2013 for alleged heroin/cocaine distribution; he was known by the nickname “Pelón.”
Jan. 3, 2014: FRTF asked DPD Officers Perez and Yoder to stop Defendant’s vehicle during surveillance; officers cited a hanging-object ordinance as the stated basis for the stop; Defendant produced ID and was released.
Jan. 14, 2014: Detective Sprague (coordinating with FRTF) asked Officer Jelen to stop Defendant’s vehicle during an observed delivery pattern; Jelen cited a failure-to-signal traffic violation and arrested Defendant for not having a Colorado driver’s license.
Incident to arrest, Jelen patted down Defendant and found over $4,000; a K-9 alerted the car and officers seized four cell phones from the vehicle.
At the station, Officer Marquez (at Jelen’s request) asked whether Defendant had drugs; Defendant produced a baggie containing heroin and cocaine. Defendant moved to suppress evidence from the stops, searches, arrest, and the station-house statement.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Validity of Jan. 3 traffic stop	FRTF lacked communicated reasonable suspicion; stop invalid	Stop was based on FRTF reasonable suspicion imputed to officers under collective knowledge	Held: Valid under vertical collective knowledge; Werth’s suspicion imputed to Perez/Yoder
Validity of Jan. 14 traffic stop	Stop lacked independent justification; invalid	FRTF/Det. Werth had observed deliveries; his knowledge imputed to Sprague/Jelen	Held: Valid under vertical collective knowledge; Werth’s observations imputed to Sprague/Jelen
Arrest for driving without Colorado license	Arrest unlawful because defendant had foreign license	Statute makes driving without valid CO license a misdemeanor; defendant had been in U.S. >30 days	Held: Arrest lawful under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 42‑2‑101 because exemption period had passed
Searches and station-house question; suppression of money, phones, drugs	Pat-down, vehicle search, and station question violated Fourth/Miranda; evidence must be suppressed	Pat-down was search incident to arrest; vehicle search supported by probable cause/K‑9; station-house discovery inevitable	Held: Pat-down and vehicle search lawful; drugs admissible under inevitable discovery doctrine

Atwater v. City of Lago Vista, 532 U.S. 318 (officer authority to arrest for misdemeanor)
Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (search-incident-to-arrest doctrine limits)
Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. 435 (lawful arrest authorizes search of arrestee)
United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411 (totality-of-circumstances reasonable suspicion test)
United States v. Chavez, 534 F.3d 1338 (collective knowledge imputed for stops)
United States v. Whitley, 680 F.3d 1227 (vertical collective knowledge doctrine)
Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431 (inevitable discovery doctrine)
Florence v. Bd. of Chosen Freeholders, 566 U.S. 318 (jail security interests allow searches)
California v. Carney, 471 U.S. 386 (automobile exception to warrant requirement)
Heien v. North Carolina, 574 U.S. 54 (reasonable mistake of law can supply reasonable suspicion)