Filed: Feb. 27, 2004
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit F I L E D UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS February 27, 2004 For the Fifth Circuit Charles R. Fulbruge III Clerk No. 03-30384 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Plaintiff–Appellee VERSUS MICHAEL WILLIAMS, also known as Sealed Defendant #1 Defendant–Appellant Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana (02-CR-68) Before DAVIS, BARKSDALE and PRADO, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Defendant Michael Williams (“Williams”) challenges
Summary: United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit F I L E D UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS February 27, 2004 For the Fifth Circuit Charles R. Fulbruge III Clerk No. 03-30384 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Plaintiff–Appellee VERSUS MICHAEL WILLIAMS, also known as Sealed Defendant #1 Defendant–Appellant Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana (02-CR-68) Before DAVIS, BARKSDALE and PRADO, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Defendant Michael Williams (“Williams”) challenges t..
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United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
F I L E D
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS February 27, 2004
For the Fifth Circuit
Charles R. Fulbruge III
Clerk
No. 03-30384
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Plaintiff–Appellee
VERSUS
MICHAEL WILLIAMS, also known as Sealed Defendant #1
Defendant–Appellant
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Louisiana
(02-CR-68)
Before DAVIS, BARKSDALE and PRADO, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:*
Defendant Michael Williams (“Williams”) challenges the
district court’s denial of his motion to suppress and his 43 month
sentence for Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon under 18
U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Williams entered, and the district court
*
Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that this
opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under
the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4.
approved, a conditional guilty plea to the firearm charge allowing
defendant to challenge on appeal the denial of his motion to
suppress.
Williams argues that his initial arrest for drinking alcohol
in his van parked in a private parking lot was unjustified, thus
rendering the resulting seizure of a handgun incident to the arrest
invalid. Defendant asserts that drinking in a vehicle is not a
violation of Baton Rouge City Ordinance, as the government avers,
and therefore the police were not objectively justified in
arresting him.
Where officers operate under a mistake of law in making an
arrest, items seized pursuant to that arrest may not be suppressed
under the good faith exception where the mistake is a reasonable
one. United States v. Lopez-Valdez,
178 F.3d 282, 289 (5th Cir.
1999); United States v. Williams,
622 F.2d 830, 841 n.4a (5th Cir.
1980) (en banc) (“We emphasize that the [good faith] belief . . .
must be grounded in an objective reasonableness. It must therefore
be based upon articulable premises sufficient to cause a
reasonable, and reasonably trained, officer to believe that he was
acting lawfully.”).
In this case a reasonably trained officer could reasonably
believe that drinking alcohol in a motor vehicle was a violation of
Baton Rouge City Code § 13:1018.1(b): “it shall be unlawful for any
operator of any motor vehicle or any passenger in any motor vehicle
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to drink, consume or be in possession of any [open container of
alcohol] . . . except when such [open container] shall be kept in
the trunk . . . or . . . in some area of the vehicle not normally
occupied by the driver or passengers . . . .” Therefore the good
faith exception applies to the officers’ actions in this case and
the motion to suppress was properly denied.
Williams also challenges his 43 month sentence. He complains
that the district court improperly counted a prior misdemeanor
conviction for negligent injury in its criminal history
calculation.
Misdemeanors are included in the criminal history calculation
unless they are listed in or similar to those listed in sentencing
guideline 4A1.2(c), U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. Negligent
injury is not one of the crimes listed in the guideline and none of
the crimes listed is remotely similar to negligent injury.
Therefore, the judge correctly considered the prior misdemeanor
conviction.
For the reasons stated above, the district court correctly
denied Williams’s motion to suppress and we therefore affirm his
conviction. We also affirm Williams’s sentence.
AFFIRMED.
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