United States v. Randall Geiger

MEMORANDUM

The government appeals from the district court’s order suppressing material witness identifications of appellee Randall Cary Geiger. We have interlocutory jurisdiction over an appeal from an order suppressing evidence under 18 U.S.C. § 3731 . We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Geiger was arrested at a border checkpoint after agents discovered three illegal aliens concealed inside a jet ski towed by a truck; Geiger was in the front passenger seat. The material witnesses separately identified Geiger later that night in a photographic lineup. Two of the three identified Geiger again during depositions two months later. In granting Geiger’s motion to suppress the identifications, the district court found the circumstances surrounding the lineup were impermissibly suggestive. The district court also suppressed the subsequent deposition identifications as tainted.

We review de novo whether a pretrial identification procedure is so suggestive as to violate a defendant’s right to due process. United States v. Montgomery, 150 F.3d 983, 992 (9th Cir.1998). A pretrial identification is subject to suppression if the procedure used was impermissibly suggestive and…