United States v. Juan Thomas Suarez

SUPPLEMENT TO DISSENTING OPINION OF MAY 16, 1990

In this case I dissented on May 16, 1990. U.S. v. Suarez, 902 F.2d 1466 (9th Cir.1990). I now change my mind and concur in the result, but on a different ground from the majority.

In my change of mind, I find that I misstated the facts, at least partially.

A closer examination of the record convinces me that the officers of the government felt they had Suarez himself, the keeper of the cache, when they handcuffed him. Maybe they had sufficient facts, but they seem to have failed to prove the point. This leads me to concur in the result.

I thank the parties for calling to our attention, by stipulation, the fact that the scene of the detention was a one-car garage and not a four-car common garage.

Perhaps, in the above, I may have only obscured my point. But here it is again. If the officers had asked Suarez if he was the owner of the van which they had taken away from Gonzales, they would have surely known they were talking to the man they wanted to talk to and whose premises they wanted to search. But, on the record, it might have been possible that the man was a visitor to the premises or even a burglar. I know of no…