United States v. Marvin Schultz

MEMORANDUM

Defendants Marvin Ray Schultz and Jason Stephen Wallace appeal the district court’s denial of their motion to suppress evidence obtained as a result of a traffic stop near the Mexico border in November 2008. We review the district court’s decision de novo, its findings of fact for clear error, and we affirm. United States v. Berber-Tinoco, 510 F.3d 1083, 1087 (9th Cir.2007).

A brief investigatory stop does not violate the Fourth Amendment if the officer possesses “reasonable suspicion” that the suspects are engaged in illegal activity, which is more than a “hunch” but considerably less than probable cause or a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7 , 109 S.Ct. 1581 , 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989). To determine whether a stop was justified by reasonable suspicion, we consider the totality of the circumstances, including “objective observations, information from police reports, if such are available, and consideration of the modes or patterns of operation of certain kinds of law breakers.” United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 418 , 101 S.Ct. 690 , 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981).

Defendants would have us employ the type of “divide and conquer” analysis…