UNITED STATES оf America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Brian Ford FAGER, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 15-3104.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
Jan. 21, 2016.
810 F.3d 381
Before HOLMES, BALDOCK, and MATHESON, Circuit Judges.
III
For the reasons outlined above, we AFFIRM the district court‘s order denying Defendants’ motion to stay the proceedings and compel arbitration.3
James A. Brown, Assistant United States Attorney (Barry R. Grissom, United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Office of the United States Attorney, Topeka, KS, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
BALDOCK, Circuit Judge.
Defendant Brian Ford Fager appeals the denial of his Motion to Suppress a firearm police officers discovered on his person during a roadside frisk. We must decide whether the officers’ concerns for their own safety gave them the requisite reasonable suspicion to frisk Defendant. We hold that these concerns sufficiently justified the frisk under the totality of the circumstances and affirm.
I.
On February 10, 2014, Deputy Justin Dobler of the Topeka Police Department stopped Defendant‘s car around 8:00 p.m. for a turn signal violation near an apartment complex in a high-crime area of Topeka. Deputy Dobler approached the passenger side of the vehicle. Two people were in the car: Defendant was driving, and Gregory Walls was in the front passenger‘s seat. Dеputy Dobler noticed Defendant‘s eyes were watery, his speech was soft, and an unopened beer can sat in the center console of the vehicle—signs that indicated Defendant may have been impaired. Furthermore, Walls continually leaned forward in a way that made Deputy Dobler think Walls was trying to obstruct his view of Defendant, an action which Deputy Dobler found suspicious.
Deputy Dobler asked for and received both Defendant‘s and Walls‘s identifications. He then returned to his patrоl vehicle and ran the identifications for outstanding warrants. He discovered Walls had several outstanding warrants for his arrest, but he was not informed of the grounds for the warrants. Deputy Dobler called for a backup officer at this point, and once the backup officer arrived, they
Deputy Dobler spoke with Defendant at the back of Defendant‘s vehicle and asked if he had been drinking or doing drugs that evening. Defеndant answered that he had not. Although Deputy Dobler had discovered Defendant had at least one prior DUI, he determined Defendant was not presently impaired in any way. Deputy Dobler later testified that at this point Defendant had not done anything to cause him any fear.
After a few more questions, Deputy Dobler asked Defendant if he could search Defendant‘s car. Defendant responded that he could. Because it was cold, Deputy Dobler gave Defendant the option to sit in his pаtrol vehicle while the search was ongoing instead of standing outside. Defendant took Deputy Dobler up on this offer and chose to sit inside the patrol vehicle, which was parked only a few feet away from Defendant‘s car.
Deputy Dobler then explained to Defendant, “For our safety, I want to pat you down real quick to make sure you don‘t got any weapons or anything on you at all.” DVD of Traffic Stop 19:52:34. Defendant did not verbally respond but positioned himself for a pat-down. Deputy Doblеr explained to Defendant that he was not being arrested.
Deputy Dobler and the backup officer began the pat-down search of Defendant, and a third officer arrived at the scene during the course of the pat-down. Deputy Dobler eventually discovered the firearm at issue in Defendant‘s waistband. The officers then arrested Defendant.
Thereafter, a grand jury charged Defendant in a Sealed Indictment with being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of
With there only being two officers at that time, before our third officer showed up, if he‘s going to consent to search the vehicle and then go in a patrol car, make sure he‘s got no weapons on him, due to the fact that we‘re going to be taking myself was going to be completely looking away from both of those people while searching the vehicle, and the last thing we want to have happen is an attack to happen on another deputy and then draw the third officer away from the second occupant to help him out. It would just be a bad situation.
Tr. of Mot. to Suppress Hr‘g 20.
The district court eventually determined the frisk was lawful and denied the Motion to Suppress. The court based this ruling solely on its conclusion that the officers had reasonable suspicion to support the frisk under this Court‘s precedent from United States v. McRae, 81 F.3d 1528 (10th Cir.1996), and United States v. Manjarrez, 348 F.3d 881 (10th Cir.2003). As a result, Dеfendant entered a conditional guilty plea that allowed him to appeal the district court‘s denial of the Motion to Suppress.1 He now exercises that right and timely appeals the denial. We have jurisdiction pursuant to
II.
“In reviewing a district court‘s denial of a motion to suppress, we view the
III.
The
[T]here must be a narrowly drawn authority to permit a reasonable search for weapons for the protection of the police officer, where he has reason to believe that he is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual, regardless of whether he has probable cause to arrest the individual for a crime. The officer need not be absolutely certain that the individual is armed; the issue is whether a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger.
Terry, 392 U.S. at 27 (emphases added); see also United States v. Garcia, 751 F.3d 1139, 1142 (10th Cir. 2014).
Given this understandable concern for officer safety, we have upheld pat-down searches “[e]ven when an officer had limited ‘specific information leading him to believe that [an individual] was armed or dangerous’ and no knowledge of the individual‘s having possessed a weapon.” Garcia, 751 F.3d at 1142 (second alteration in original) (quoting McRae, 81 F.3d at 1536). In United States v. McRae, for instance,
an officer frisked Mr. McRae after obtaining consent to search Mr. McRae‘s vehicle. Th[is] court cоncluded the officer had reasonable suspicion to frisk Mr. McRae because (1) “a search of the car might compel [the officer] to turn his back on Mr. McRae, and the two men were on an isolated stretch of highway“; (2) the officer received information that Mr. McRae ha[d] a criminal history and should be approached with “extreme caution“; and (3) Mr. McRae put on his jacket before exiting his vehicle, and “a jacket is a likely place in which to store a weapon.”
Id. at 1146 (citations omitted) (quoting McRae, 81 F.3d at 1531-32, 1536). And in United States v. Manjarrez,
an officer frisked Mr. Manjarrez after obtaining consent to search Mr. Manjarrez‘s vehicle. Unlike the officer in McRae, however, the officer in Manjarrez had no knowledge of any previous criminal history, and Mr. Manjarrez was not acting suspiciously. Th[is] court concluded that the officer “could not reasonably be expected to leave Defendant in his patrol car, turn his back on Defendant, insert his head into Defendant‘s
car, and search the car without first checking Defendant for weapons.”
Id. (citations omitted) (quoting Manjarrez, 348 F.3d at 884, 887). These two cases taken togethеr have led us to reason that when an officer must “turn his or her back to a defendant, we require[] little beyond this concern to support the officer‘s reasonable suspicion.” Id. at 1147.
Nonetheless, we reaffirmed in United States v. Garcia, 751 F.3d 1139 (10th Cir.2014), that a reasonable suspicion analysis is still first and foremost a multi-factor test based on the totality of the circumstances. Id. at 1144-46; see also Rice, 483 F.3d at 1083. In addition to the officer having to turn his or her back on the defendant, other factors that can influence an officer‘s reasonable suspicion include (but are not limited to) the time of day when and the place where the pat-down occurred, any previous encounters the officer had with the defendant, the defendant‘s criminal history, the defendant‘s nervousness,2 and the defendant‘s history of drug use.3 Garcia, 751 F.3d at 1144-47. Moreover, when a defendant is in a “relatively small automobile” with a passenger who has outstanding arrest warrants and “either individual could access weapons inside the passenger compartment,” we have held that an officer may “infer a common purpose or ‘enterprise’ between the two men and believe that [the defendant] knew of [the passenger‘s] arrest warrants and would want to conceal evidence of any wrongdoing.” United States v. Dennison, 410 F.3d 1203, 1213 (10th Cir.2005) (quoting Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295, 304-05, 119 S.Ct. 1297, 143 L.Ed.2d 408 (1999)). This “common purpose or enterprise” also bears on the reasonable suspicion analysis. See id.
When finally weighing the totality of the circumstances, we must be careful to “tak[e] into account an officer‘s reasonable inferences based on training, experience, and common sense,” Rice, 483 F.3d at 1083 (emphasis added), and to that extent “we lоok at the objective facts, not the officer‘s state of mind” when “measuring the actions of a police officer under the
IV.
Defendant argues on appeal that the district court erred in utilizing this Court‘s decisions from McRae and Manjarrez to support its conclusion that Deputy Dobler had reasonable suspicion to pat him down. His argument on this front is two-fold. First, he claims the facts in McRae and
A.
Defendant asserts McRae and Manjarrez were incorrectly decided because they suggest that “when an officer is given consent to search a car[,] it automatically allows the officer to frisk the occupants of the car” even if he has no suspicion the occupants are armed or dangerous. Appellant‘s Br. 57. He therefore asks us to overrule our holdings in these cases and re-establish the requirement that an officer must reasonably suspect an individual is armed and dangerous before he can frisk the individual.
Contrary to Defendant‘s contention, however, McRae and Manjarrez are not exceptions to the armed and dangerous requirement but instead function as specific applications of how the armed and dangerous requirement plays out when an officer is in perilous circumstances and reasonably concerned for his own safety. More specifically, these two cases show “how an officer‘s suspicion that an individual is dangerous can affect that officer‘s suspicion that an individual is armed.” Garcia, 751 F.3d at 1143 n. 7. This approach explains why the officer in McRae could frisk the driver of the vehicle before searching his car: because the driver had a violent criminal history and the officer had to turn his back on this potentially dangerous man, the officer could reasonably suspect the driver of the vehicle was armed and frisk him for his own safety. The same was true for the officer in Manjarrez: he had to turn his back on the driver to perform a search of his vehicle, and given the dangerous nature of traffic stops to officers, he could reasonably susрect the driver was armed. See United States v. Holt, 264 F.3d 1215, 1223 (10th Cir.2001) (en banc) (“The terrifying truth is that officers face a very real risk of being assaulted with a dangerous weapon each time they stop a vehicle.“), overruling on other grounds recognized in United States v. Stewart, 473 F.3d 1265, 1269 (10th Cir.2007).
Furthermore, in Garcia we noted McRae and Manjarrez were cases that applied reasonable suspicion analyses. See Garcia, 751 F.3d at 1146 (“Although neither McRae nor Manjarrez are factually identical to the present case, both suggest Officer Devos‘s circumstances ... support reasonable suspicion.” (emphasis added)); id. at 1146 n. 10 (“The reasonable suspicion analyses in both McRae and Manjarrez ... did not turn on whether the search was consensual, but instead on the officers’ concern for their own safety.” (emphаsis added)); id. at 1147 (“In the two Tenth Circuit cases that have considered an officer‘s having to turn his or her back to a defendant, we required little beyond this concern to support the officer‘s reasonable suspicion.” (emphasis added)). These references from Garcia demonstrate Defendant is mistaken when he contends McRae and Manjarrez stand for the alternative proposition that an officer can automatically frisk the occupants of a car when the driver gives him consent to search the car. To be sure, these two cases “did not turn on whether the search was consensual, but instead on the officers’ concern for their own safety, including having to turn their backs to defendants to conduct the
We consequently reject Defendant‘s invitation to overrule McRae and Manjarrez. These two cases are appropriate extensions of the rule that pat-downs and frisks are constitutional when an officer reasonably suspects an individual is armed and dangerous. We find no reason to deviate from them.5
B.
Defendant‘s alternative argument that McRae and Manjarrez are factually distinguishable from his case ultimately boils down to the fact that two police officers were present when Deputy Dobler received Defendant‘s consent to search his car. He claims the presence of this additional officer—a circumstance that did not exist in either McRae or Manjarrez—means the officers could not reasonably suspect Defendant was armed and dangerous, presumably because the additional officer would have vitiated any risk of danger Defendant presented while the search was ongoing and thereby eliminated any concerns the officers could have had for their own safety. He also contends that no other factors existed that could have ignited reasonable suspicion in the officers, especially since Deputy Dobler testified that Defendant had not done anything to cause him any fear during the stop.
But the presence оf the backup officer did not entirely abate the danger that Defendant posed to the officers. Even though the backup officer undoubtedly could have supervised Defendant while Deputy Dobler searched the vehicle, this supervision may not have adequately curtailed any plan Defendant may have had to shoot one or both of the officers. Indeed, “[a]n officer in today‘s reality has an objective, reasonable basis to fear for his or her life” during traffic stops because
Moreover, additional circumstances existed that justified reasonable suspicion. For instance, although the officers were not aware of the bases for Wаlls‘s arrest warrants, they were entitled to “infer a common purpose or enterprise between the two men and believe that [Defendant] knew of [Walls‘s] arrest warrants and would want to conceal evidence of any wrongdoing.” Dennison, 410 F.3d at 1213 (internal quotation marks omitted). Walls had also been acting suspiciously when Deputy Dobler initially approached the vehicle by blocking his view of Defendant. See Rice, 483 F.3d at 1085 (“A reasonable officer can infer from the behavior of one of a car‘s passengеrs a concern that reflects on the actions and motivations of the other passengers.“). To top it off, the traffic stop occurred in a high-crime area
When added to the fact that the officers would have been vulnerable to an attack when searching Defendant‘s vehicle, these additional circumstances indicate that the officers here, like the officers in McRae and Manjarrez, could reasonably be concerned for their own safety. And because of these heightened officer safety concerns, the officers could reasonably suspect Defendant was armed and pat him down. This conclusion remains true even though Deputy Dobler testified that Defendant had not done anything to cause him any fear during the stop. See Neff, 300 F.3d at 1222 (holding that courts must “look at the objective facts, not the оfficer‘s state of mind” when “measuring the actions of a police officer under the
Defendant‘s efforts to distinguish McRae and Manjarrez ultimately prove unavailing. These cases extend to the facts here and demonstrate the officers could pat-down Defendant. Allowing Defendant to sit in the back of the patrol vehicle without frisking him would have invited an attack on the officers, and the officers were justified in ensuring this risk did not become reality. Consequently, we conclude the officers had sufficient reasonable suspicion to frisk Defendant.7
V.
Given the circumstances of the traffic stop, the officers were justified in frisking Defendant bеcause they reasonably suspected he was armed and dangerous. The district court‘s denial of Defendant‘s Motion to Suppress is therefore AFFIRMED.
COLUMBIAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION; the Columbian Bank & Trust Company, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Judi M. STORK; Deryl K. Schuster; Office of the State Bank Commissioner of Kansas; Edwin G. Splichal; J. Thomas Thull, Defendants-Appellees.
No. 14-3274.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.
Jan. 26, 2016.