United States v. Hozie Chamberlin

The opinion of December 26,1979 is hereby withdrawn and the following opinion is substituted. Hozie Chamberlin appeals from a conviction of possession of a check stolen from the mail in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1708 . The principal question on this appeal is whether the detention of the appellant following an investigatory stop resulted in a seizure amounting to an unlawful arrest, requiring suppression of the evidence derived from that detention. The appellant moved to suppress the evidence; and upon denial of the motion he waived a jury trial and proceeded to trial before the court on stipulated facts. We find that the detention was unlawful and the motion to suppress should have been granted. We therefore reverse.

The issues involved are: (1) whether the investigatory stop of Chamberlin by the officer was justified by founded suspicion; (2) whether the subsequent detention amounted to unlawful arrest without probable cause; and (3) whether subsequent evidence obtained was the fruit of an unlawful arrest.

Facts

On October 4, 1978 at about 12:20 P.M. Officer Morse of the San Diego Police Department, while driving on routine patrol, observed appellant, Hozie Chamberlin, and a…

concurring and dissenting:

Because of the Supreme Court’s strongly-couched dicta in Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200 , 99 S.Ct. 2248 , 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979), I agree with my colleagues that the detention of Chamberlin after the initial investigatory stop was illegal.

However, I respectfully dissent from my colleagues’ conclusion that all the evidence derived by the officer after the placement of Chamberlin in the back seat of the police car was tainted by the illegal detention and therefore must be suppressed as the fruit of a poisonous tree.

My colleagues find that the officer’s initial observation of Chamberlin’s suspicious behavior, Chamberlin’s first statement about the Universal Furniture Store, and his statement regarding Franklin were completely untainted. All this evidence was obtained before the illegal detention.

But I wish to point out that the officer’s receipt of the radio message and his discovery that the check belonged to a third person, rather than to Chamberlin’s mother, were also untainted, because they had no connection with the illegal detention. The information in the officer’s possession at that moment made him suspicious of Cham-berlin’s earlier…

644 F.2d 1262 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Hozie CHAMBERLIN, Defendant-Appellant. No. 79-1076. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Aug. 6, 1979. Decided Oct. 7, 1980. Judy C. Clarke, San Diego, Cal., for defendant-appellant. Michael H. Walsh, U. S. Atty., David C. Doyle, Asst. U. S. Atty., San Diego, Cal., (argued), for plaintiff-appellee; David C. Doyle, Asst. U. S. Atty., San Diego, Cal., on brief. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Before CHOY, ANDERSON and HUG, Circuit Judges. HUG, Circuit Judge: 1 The opinion of December 26, 1979 is hereby withdrawn and the following opinion is substituted. Hozie Chamberlin appeals from a conviction of possession of a check stolen from the mail in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1708 . The principal question on this appeal is whether the detention of the appellant following an investigatory stop resulted in a seizure amounting to an unlawful arrest, requiring suppression of the evidence derived from that detention. The appellant moved to suppress the evidence; and upon denial of the motion he waived a jury trial and proceeded to trial before…