State v. CauseyState v. Causey
In Case No. A00A1686, the State appeals the trial court’s order granting Aaron Decarlis Causey’s motion to suppress the evidence, and in Case No. A00A1687, the State appeals the trial court’s order denying its complaint for forfeiture of $3,477 seized from Causеy. Both the criminal case and the civil forfeiture case are based on the same transaction in which the trial court determined that the arresting officers lacked sufficient articulable suspicion to justify their stop of Causey. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the trial court’s grant of Causey’s motion to suppress and the denial of the State’s forfeiture complaint.
Case No. A00A1686
1. The State appeals the trial court’s grant of appellee’s motion to suppress, and on appеal the evidence must be construed most favora bly to support the trial court’s ruling. See Parker v. State. 1 “[W]here the evidence is uncontroverted and no question regarding the credibility of witnesses is presented, the trial court’s application of the law to undisputed facts is subject to de novo appellate review.” Vansant v. State. 2
The record shows that, at approximately 8:00 p.m. on February 26, 1999, Marietta Police Officers Mark Bishop and Danny Messimer, while off duty, were working as security personnel at Dave & Buster’s, monitoring the parking lot. There had been a history of cars being broken into in this parking lot. The officers noticed an unknown man,
The officers began walking toward the vehicle, which was later detеrmined to belong to Causey. As they got within 30 yards of the vehicle, Blount got out and ran out of the parking lot. The trial court noted, without deciding, that there was conflicting testimony as to whether or not prior to running to the hotel, Blount saw the police officers. In any event he moved away from the officers, and this precluded his being questioned. What is important in this context, however, is that it is undisputed that the officer thought Blount had seen him and such conclusion further supported his reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct by Blount and Causey. The officers did not pursue Blount because he was too far away from them to be caught. Causey had pulled into the parking lot, picked up Blount, and driven him to a remote area of the parking lot where he released him beyond the reach of the officers, then began to drive toward the parking lot exit. The officers, being suspicious of the conduct
After the stop, Officer Bishop questioned Cаusey about his knowledge of his cohort, Blount, and, based on Causey’s nervousness, Officer Bishop requested permission to search the car. Causey agreed to let the officers search his car. Causey was carrying nun-chucks, a handgun, cocaine, marijuana, and $3,477 in his car and on his person. Causey was charged with trafficking in cocaine, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon and later filed his motion to suppress the above evidence. Following a hearing, the trial court granted Causey’s motion to suppress this evidence. The trial court based its ruling on the isolated conduct of Causey and did not address the reasonablеness of the officers’ consideration of the conduct of Blount and Causey individually and jointly and thus failed to consider the totality of the circumstances. The totality of the circumstances authorized a second-tier stop based on the pre-stop conduct, without regard to the existence of contraband that was later found.
At least three types of police-citizen encounters exist: [(1)] verbal communications involving no coercion or detention; [(2)] brief “stops” or “seizures” that require reasonable suspicion; and [(3)] “arrests,” which can only be supported by probable cause. Verhoeff v. State. 3 A first-tier encounter never intrudes upon any constitutionally protected interest, since the purpose of the Fourth Amendment is not to eliminate all contact between police and citizens, but simply to prevent arbitrary and oppressive police interference with the privacy and personal security of individual citizens. Verhoeff, supra at 503. On the other hand, a second-tier encounter may violate the Fourth Amendment if the officer briefly “stops” or “seizes” a citizen without an articulable suspicion. Articulable suspicion requires a particularized and objective basis for suspecting that a citizen is involved in criminal activity. See Painter v. State. 4 Moreovеr, a “seizure” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment only occurs when, in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person believes that he is not free to leave. Moran v. State 5
Stokes v. State. 6
(a) Initially, the State argues that the stop of Causey’s vehicle wаs a first-tier stop, i.e., involving no coercion or detention. See Stokes, supra. The State relies upon Stokes, wherein we held that an officer’s approach and questioning of people in and around a parked car was a first-tier stop “neither requiring reasonable suspicion nor invoking Fourth Amendment protection for [the defendant].” Id. at 233. Significantly, in Stokes, we distinguished the situation where the officer orders or instructs a vehicle’s occupant to roll down the window or open a car door, determining that such an action may equal “physical force or a show of authority sufficient to constitute a ‘seizure.’ ” Id. Therefore, the present case is clearly distinguishable from our holding in Stokes, supra. Herein, Officer Bishop held out his hand and “yelled” for Causey to stop his moving vehicle. The State’s argument that Officer Bishоp’s stop of Causey’s moving vehicle was a first-tier stop is without merit. See Peters v. State. 7
(b) The State next contends that, even if considered a second-tier stop, the stop of Causey’s car was justified. We agree. Officer Bishop had a reasonable articulаble suspicion of criminal activity by Blount and Causey and was justified in briefly detaining and questioning Causey.
The United States Supreme Court has discussed, at length, the elusive nature of what is deemed sufficient to authorize the police to stop and detain a citizen.
With the totality of the circumstances test in mind we review the facts of the present case. For this purpose, we focus on the reasonableness of the stop, without regard to the presence of drugs which was ultimately established. The fact that contraband is in fact discovered will not support an otherwise invalid stop. Postell v. State. 11 Trained police officers testified they were aware of prior auto break-ins that occurred in the Dave & Buster’s рarking lot. There had been an auto break-in on the previous evening. With this knowledge, the officers saw an individual who reasonably appeared to be casing the cars in the parking lot. Officer Bishop testified inter alia:
I saw him start walking in between cаrs, not as coming to [Dave & Buster’s], but he went to an aisle of cars and was in and out in between cars. While doing this, occasionally he would stop, lean over, look in a vehicle. Then he’d stand up, look over his shoulders both directions. Since it was brought to my attention that there was a theft from a vehicle the night before, ... I started believing that’s what Mr. Blount was there for. At that point I started walking towards Mr. Blount. . . . Prior to my getting even close to Mr. Blount, a blue Toyota Célica pulled in the parking lot. . . . Mr. Blount got into the front passеnger side of the vehicle, and [it] proceeded to . . .an unoccupied area of the parking lot. So . . . I haven’t verified Mr. Blount’s intentions for being in the parking lot, and I’ve got a new player in the game. ... I started walking toward the vehicle. . . . As I got within . . . 30 yards . . . Mr. Blount exitеd the . . . vehicle, looked up, saw me and went into a dead run.
These circumstances viewed from the standpoint of an objectively reasonable police officer justified their suspicion that the parties, both Blount and Causey, were engagеd in wrongdoing. See United States v. Cortez, supra.
[C]ourts do not have available empirical studies dealing with inferences drawn from suspicious behavior, and we cannot reasonably demand scientific certainty from judges or law enforcement officers where none exists. Thus, the dеtermination of reasonable suspicion must be based on common sense judgments and inferences about human behavior. . . . All of this conduct was by itself lawful, but it also suggested that the individuals were [engaged in crimi nal activity]. Terry recognized that the officers could dеtain the individuals to resolve the ambiguity.
Illinois v. Wardlow. 12
In the present case, the officers drew reasonable conclusions based upon their experience
Case No. A00A1687
2. In Case No. A00A1687, the State appeals the trial court’s order denying its complaint for forfeiture of $3,477 seized from Causey. The trial court based its order in the forfeiture case on its determination that the tangible property that was the subject of the forfеiture action was not obtained legally. However, because we held in Division 1 that the trial court erred in making that determination and in granting Causey’s motion to suppress, we also find that the trial court erred in denying the State’s forfeiture complaint. See OCGA § 16-13-49 (d) (2).
Judgments reversed.
Stokes v. State,
Illinois v.
Wardlow,
Notes
Parker v. State,
Vansant v. State,
Verhoeff v. State,
Painter v. State,
Moran v. State,
Peters v. State,
United States v. Cortez,
Freeland v. State,
Ornelas v. United States,
Postell v. State,