United States v. Jody Fontenot

MEMORANDUM

Jody Fontenot appeals the district court’s denial of his motion for suppression of evidence and his subsequent conviction, following a bench trial, for having violated 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1), which prohibits felons’ possession of firearms. The parties are familiar with the facts underlying the appeal and thus we do not include them save as necessary. We affirm.

A police officer may detain an individual to conduct an investigatory frisk consistent with the Fourth Amendment if the officer has “a reasonable articulable suspicion that [the individual] pose[s] a threat to his safety or the safety of others....” United States v. Terry-Crespo, 356 F.3d 1170, 1173 (9th Cir.2004) (citing United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7 , 109 S.Ct. 1581 , 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989)); see also Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 , 88 S.Ct. 1868 , 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Here, the police had a reasonable articulable suspicion that Fontenot posed a threat to the safety of others. The police had received a high priority 9-1-1 dispatch that, in the parking lot of a liquor store on the corner of Geneva Avenue and Santos Street in San Francisco, there was a group of “guys” in front of the store and one of them…