United States v. Frank Howard Blum

Appellant, Frank Howard Blum (Blum) was convicted in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, after trial by court on a stipulation of facts, of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113 (a) (d). A timely appeal was taken to this court which has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1291 and 1294(4).

The threshold question presented is whether probable cause existed at the time a police radio broadcast was initiated requesting Blum’s arrest for passing counterfeit bills.

The facts and circumstances known to the law enforcement officers at the time the broadcast was made, are shown by the evidence presented at the hearing on Blum’s motion to suppress on May 23, 1968. At approximately 3:10 P.M. on the afternoon of Sunday, February 11, 1968 Captain Hubert L. Meeker (Captain Meeker) and Sergeant Jimmy Gwatney (Sergeant Gwatney) of the City Police Department of Lake Charles, a small town in southwestern Louisiana, in response to a call over the police radio, drove to a Shell service station operated by a local businessman, Donald Ray Toussand (Toussand). Toussand reported to Captain Meeker that he had received four one dollar bills from a customer…