United States v. Bradley

959 F.3d 551

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant

v.Gary BRADLEY

No. 19-2003

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued on April 14, 2020

Filed: May 15, 2020

Scott R. Ford [ARGUED], Office of United States Attorney, Middle District of Pennsylvania, 228 Walnut Street, P.O. Box 11754, 220 Federal Building and Courthouse, Harrisburg, PA 17108, Counsel for Appellants

Ronald A. Krauss [ARGUED], Frederick W. Ulrich, Office of Federal Public Defender, 100 Chestnut Street – Ste. 306, Harrisburg, PA 17101, Counsel for Appellee

Before: AMBRO, JORDAN, and SHWARTZ, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

JORDAN, Circuit Judge.

Early on a cold February morning in 2018, Pennsylvania State Trooper Wesley Johnson pulled over Gary Bradley for speeding. With a skillful and friendly demeanor, the trooper coaxed Bradley into confessing that there was cocaine in the vehicle he was driving. After being indicted for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, Bradley moved to suppress both his confession and the physical evidence, including the drugs. The District Court granted that motion.

The government now appeals the suppression of the physical evidence, presenting two arguments, only one of which was made to the District Court. The government has forfeited the argument it did not make earlier – namely, that the physical evidence should not have been suppressed because the statements Bradley made before receiving Miranda warnings were made voluntarily. But the government’s second argument, that the cocaine would inevitably have been discovered because Bradley’s vehicle would have been subject to an inventory search, has merit. We will, therefore, vacate the District Court’s order to the extent it suppressed the physical evidence and remand for it to decide whether any supplementation of the record is needed to decide whether that physical evidence would have been inevitably discovered, and, if so, whether police department policy sufficiently cabined the scope of the officer’s discretion in conducting the inventory search such that the search of the backpack, a closed container, would have been lawful.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Traffic Stop

Trooper Johnson was sitting in his unmarked police vehicle at about 2:00 a.m. on February 10, 2018, on the side of route 81 outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when he saw a car pass at approximately 45-50 mph in a zone where the speed limit is 65 mph. He could not see the driver of the car as it passed. Suspecting the driver was under the influence of an intoxicant, Johnson followed the car for about a half mile. At that point, the car had accelerated and was weaving about in its lane. When the car was going 75 mph, Trooper Johnson switched on his lights and caused the car to pull over to the side of the road. When the trooper activated the lights, the Dashcam on his vehicle automatically began recording, so we have a clear record of what was said during the conversation that ensued.

Trooper Johnson approached the car and greeted its only occupant, Mr. Bradley. As is typical, he asked for Bradley’s license and registration. Bradley promptly admitted that his driver’s license was suspended and that the car was rented, so he instead gave the trooper an I.D. card and the rental information. When Bradley said that he had been cited for driving on a suspended license "a couple times," Johnson said in a cheerful way, "my man, I got bigger things to worry about, it’s almost the end of my shift," and that they could "work through that" because it wasn’t "a big deal." (Dashcam Video at 1:48-2:04.) Then, in the same sort of I’m-just-here-to-help tone of voice, Johnson told Bradley, "I’m going to bring you back to my car" to see if "I can cut you a break." (Dashcam Video at 3:03-27.) After a brief hesitation, Bradley got out of his vehicle and went with Johnson to the police car. Johnson patted down Bradley for weapons and, finding none, the two got into the car, with Johnson in the driver’s seat and Bradley in the passenger seat.

Once in the car, Trooper Johnson asked Bradley a series of questions about where he was going and where he had been, all the while being remarkably solicitous. He made frequent comments to put Bradley at ease, such as "Take a deep breath, bud, take a deep breath," and he frequently called him "bro," "bud," and "my man." (Dashcam Video at 2:42-53; see Dashcam Video generally.) Under Johnson’s questioning, Bradley said that he was on his way home from visiting his mother in a personal care facility in Queens, New York. He also said he had just been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for "drugs." (Dashcam Video at 4:30-11:00.) Johnson continued his effort to build rapport with Bradley, asking him "When’s the last time you’ve been cut a legitimate break, bro?" (Dashcam Video at 8:25-27.) At the same time, Johnson continued searching through Bradley’s driving record and the rental car information. When asked about the rental car, Bradley explained that it was rented in his wife’s name. The interrogation to that point had lasted about ten minutes.

Appearing to have finished processing the information related to the traffic stop, Johnson told Bradley that he was going to give him a warning for speeding and that he would not cite him for weaving in his lane of traffic. Despite those statements, however, it seems that Johnson never intended to let Bradley go with just a warning. He later acknowledged at the suppression hearing that he would not have let Bradley drive away. In fact, he said that from the beginning he suspected criminal activity of some kind. For that reason, he had called for backup, and at about that ten-minute mark in the stop, Corporal Brian Hoye arrived on the scene.

As Corporal Hoye approached the unmarked police car, Trooper Johnson began a more pointed line of questioning, focusing on the contents of the rental car. Specifically, he asked Bradley whether there were any guns, marijuana, large sums of U.S. currency, heroin, or cocaine in the car. Bradley denied having any of those items, but Johnson later testified that he "noticed a deviation in the way [Bradley] responded to the question of cocaine." (App. at 121.) Johnson asked again whether any of the previously listed things were in the car. By then, Corporal Hoye was standing next to where Bradley sat, and this time, flanked by state troopers, Bradley admitted he had cocaine.

Johnson then quickly recited the Miranda warnings,¹ telling Bradley he was "not free to leave." (Dashcam Video at 13:40-55.) Close to fifteen minutes of questioning had gone on, most of it in the police vehicle, before the warnings were given. Immediately thereafter, Johnson asked, "Now, how much cocaine is in the car?" (Dashcam Video at 13:55-57.) Bradley answered, "a lot." (App. at 123.) At that point, Johnson believed he had probable cause to search the vehicle. He asked Bradley where the cocaine was, and Bradley told him it was in the trunk. He handcuffed Bradley and left him in the care of Corporal Hoye while he went back to the vehicle to search for the cocaine. As Bradley had said, about a kilo of cocaine in a backpack was lying in the trunk of the car. The officers told Bradley he was under arrest for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

B. The Procedural History

After he was indicted and arraigned, Bradley filed a motion to suppress. In his briefing on that motion, he argued that Trooper Johnson had unlawfully prolonged the traffic stop and that the stop involved a custodial interrogation without the benefit of Miranda warnings. The government argued that the stop had not been unnecessarily prolonged, that Bradley was not in custody, and that no warrant was necessary under the automobile exception to the warrant requirement.²

At the suppression hearing, Trooper Johnson and Bradley testified, and both parties played portions of the Dashcam video. In addition to recounting the incident, Johnson testified that, because of the suspended license, he would not have allowed Bradley to drive away. Instead, as a matter of routine, Bradley’s vehicle would have been towed and the police would have conducted an inventory search of it. At the conclusion of the hearing, the District Court requested further briefing on the suppression motion, and Bradley responded in his post-hearing submission by arguing that his statements to Johnson were effectively involuntary because they were made under custodial interrogation and therefore the statements and physical evidence should be suppressed. The government argued that, even if Bradley’s pre- Miranda statements were suppressed, his post- Miranda statements were voluntary and should be admissible in evidence, and it further contended that the cocaine would have inevitably been discovered when the rental car was impounded.

The District Court granted the motion to suppress Bradley’s pre- and post- Miranda statements, as well as the evidence that was discovered in the vehicle as a result of those statements. The Court focused primarily on the admissibility of Bradley’s statements: whether they were given as part of a custodial interrogation, and whether the post- Miranda statements were given voluntarily. See generally United States v. Bradley , 370 F. Supp. 3d 458 (M.D. Pa. 2019). It found that, at least from the time Corporal Hoye arrived on the scene, Bradley was subjected to custodial interrogation, and that Bradley’s post- Miranda statements were not voluntary. In closing, it addressed whether the physical evidence should also be suppressed or whether it would have been inevitably discovered in an inventory search. The District Court decided that the possibility of an inventory search was merely speculative, and it therefore ordered that the physical evidence, as well as Bradley’s statements, be suppressed.

The government has timely appealed.

II. DISCUSSION ³

On appeal, the government argues only for the admissibility of the physical evidence seized from the rental car. Its first...