United States v. Eileen Montoya

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Eileen Montoya (“Montoya”) was charged with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition found as a result of a traffic stop in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1). Montoya moved to suppress all evidence resulting from the stop. After the district court denied the motion, she entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving the right to appeal the denial of the motion. We must consider the probative value of the three circumstances advanced by the government to support the stop.

1. First, the district court correctly classified the tip as anonymous, because the government provided no evidence about the informant’s reliability. United States v. Morales, 252 F.3d 1070, 1074 (9th Cir.2001). The tip is not entitled to much weight. It gave the officers specific identifying features about Montoya and a general allegation of ongoing criminal activity, but provided no information about her future movements or activities. Thus, the tip lacked sufficient indicia of reliability to justify a stop. See Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 271-72 , 120 S.Ct. 1375 , 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000) (anonymous tip which does not contain predictive information but merely identifies a…