United States v. Charles Melvin Davis

Appellant was subjected to an investigatory stop and thereafter to a search which disclosed bank checks to various payees, on the basis of which he was indicted for possession of stolen mail. A motion to suppress the seized evidence was denied, and appellant was tried and convicted. On appeal he asserts as error denial of the motion to suppress.

We need not reach questions concerning the validity of the search. In our judgment there was no justification for the original stop from which flowed the investigation that precipitated the search.

The stop made by two Los Angeles police officers was based on the following facts, testified to by the searching officer at the hearing on the motion to suppress. He and his partner, in their patrol car, passed a motel known to them to be frequented by narcotics addicts. The officers observed the defendant and three or four other males standing in front of the motel, all of whom glanced at the car as it passed. The defendant then was “having difficulty sustaining his balance * * *. He looked as if he was going to fall down * * *. He was swaying from side to side * * He possibly was injured or under the influence of an intoxicant * * *. At that…