ROBERTO A. LANGE, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE.
Carrying contraband in one's car is risky business given that police may stop a
Around noon on the day of the stop, Sergeant Marrufo, a police officer with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services (CRSTLES), was on patrol in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. T. 8-9. He spotted a dark-purple pickup truck which he knew belonged to Farlee driving northbound on Main Street. T. 9-10, 15, 18. He requested a warrant check on Farlee and learned that Farlee had an active tribal arrest warrant. T. 9, 15-16, 19.
Sergeant Marrufo caught up with the truck and saw that its rear license plate was obscured by mud. T. 9-10, 16; Ex. 1. He stopped the truck and asked Farlee, the driver, to have a seat in his patrol car. T. 10, Ex. 1; Ex. B. As they walked to the car, Farlee acknowledged that there were guns in the truck and consented to Sergeant Marrufo's request to search it. T. 11, 20-21, 30-31 Ex. B.
With Farlee in the patrol car, Sergeant Marrufo returned to the track and spoke with the front seat passenger, Brittany In The Woods. T. 10, Ex. 1; Ex. B. He noticed a rifle laying near In The Woods, so he had her exit the truck. T. 40; Ex. B; Ex. 1.
Meanwhile, CRSTLES Sergeant Jeremy Reede and Officer Cody Norman arrived at the scene. Ex. 1; T. 36, 48-49, 72. Sergeant Reede wrote Farlee a citation for having an obscured license plate while Sergeant Marrufo ran his drug dog, Iwan, around the exterior of Farlee's truck. Ex. 1; Ex. B; T. 11, 21-22, 49. Iwan alerted to the odor of a narcotic coming from the driver's side door by changing his breathing and elevating his ears. T. 11, 21; Ex. 1.
Based on the alert, the officers searched Farlee's truck and found three rifles, a pistol, and a locked safe. T. 12, 28-29, 51, 73-75; Ex. 1. Officer Norman opened the safe with one of Farlee's keys. T. 74, 79. Inside he found two glass pipes, clear plastic baggies, and a small digital scale. T. 12, 29, 31, 74; Ex. B. The scale's table had a white residue on it that field tested positive for methamphetamine. T. 51, 53; Ex. B.
Farlee was arrested for the active warrant and the unlawful possession of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia, and weapons. T. 35-36; Ex. B. Later that day, Sergeant Reede obtained a tribal search warrant for Farlee's blood based on the evidence seized from his truck. T. 52, 55-56; Ex. C.
A federal grand jury eventually indicted Farlee for possessing firearms while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance. Doc. 26. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Moreno held a hearing on Farlee's motion to suppress, during which he heard testimony from Sergeants Marrufo and Reede, Officer Norman, and Beth Ducheneaux, a criminal court clerk for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He also received several exhibits into evidence, including a recording of the traffic stop from Sergeant Marrufo's dashcam. Judge Moreno recommended denying Farlee's motion to suppress, concluding that reasonable suspicion and probable cause supported the traffic stop, that the search of
This Court reviews a report and recommendation pursuant to the statutory standards found in 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1), which provides in relevant part that "[a] judge of the [district] court shall make a de novo determination of those portions of the report or specified proposed findings or recommendations to which objection is made." However, "[i]n the absence of an objection, the district court is not required `to give any more consideration to the magistrate's report than the court considers appropriate.'"
A traffic stop is a "seizure" under the Fourth Amendment and must be supported by probable cause or reasonable suspicion.
Sergeant Marrufo testified that he stopped Farlee because of the obstructed license plate and the arrest warrant. T. 37. Judge Moreno concluded that the obstructed license plate provided probable cause to believe that Farlee had violated a traffic law and that the arrest warrant gave Sergeant Marrufo reasonable suspicion for the stop. This Court agrees with Judge Moreno that both the obstructed license plate and the arrest warrant provided a lawful basis for the stop.
Sergeant Marrufo testified that the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe adopted the state of South Dakota's motor vehicle laws. T. 30. Sergeant Reede testified similarly, saying that the Tribe has adopted some of South Dakota's traffic laws and that, based on his training and experience, having an obstructed license plate violates the
Farlee rightly does not object to Judge Moreno's finding that his license plate was covered in mud and unreadable; the video of the stop shows that the mud made Farlee's license plate indecipherable even at close range, and Judge Moreno found Sergeant Marrufo's testimony on this point credible. Ex. 1; T. 10; Doc. 41 at 6. Nor does Farlee argue that his license plate was still "clearly visible" even though it was illegible.
To be sure, police officers in South Dakota could not reasonably interpret § 32-5-98 as allowing them to stop a car with a muddy license plate regardless of the circumstances. After all, the roads and weather in South Dakota could create situations where it was not "reasonably possible" for drivers to keep their license plates clear. But Farley was not driving on a muddy rural dirt road when he was stopped. Ex. 1; T. 25. Instead, he was on a paved street in downtown Eagle Butte. Ex. 1; T. 25. Moreover, Farlee's license plate wasn't just a little dirty, but rather was so caked in mud that it was difficult to tell whether he had a license plate at all. Ex. 1; T. 10. And Sergeant Marrufo did not, as Farlee suggests, testify that mud obscured the license plates on "a lot" of vehicles in Eagle Butte on October 8, 2018. In fact, the video of the stop shows several other cars with license plates that are not dirty all. Ex. 1. Beyond that, Farlee has not cited—and this Court has not found—any case from the Supreme Court of South Dakota or the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court interpreting § 32-5-98 in a way
Farlee does not specifically object to Judge Moreno's conclusion that the arrest warrant gave Sergeant Marrufo reasonable suspicion to stop Farlee's truck. However, Farlee does discuss Sergeant Marrufo's testimony that he could not make a traffic stop based solely on the warrant. Doc. 50. To the extent this discussion is an objection, it is overruled.
The witnesses at the suppression hearing testified that the warrant was for failing to pay a $50 fine for a child restraint violation. Ex. A; T. 17-18, 64-65, 90-91. They described the warrant as being an "8 to 5 warrant," meaning that Farlee could only be arrested on the warrant between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. T. 17, 66, 89, 91. Judge Moreno took judicial notice that October 8, 2018, was a Monday. T. 46-47. Although Sergeant Marrufo agreed on cross-examination that he needed some reason other than the warrant to stop Farlee, Sergeant Reede, Officer Norman, and Ducheneaux (the tribal clerk of court) all testified that the police can stop and arrest someone based solely on an 8 to 5 warrant so long as the stop occurs within the date and time restrictions. T. 66-67, 77-78, 91-92. Moreover, Farlee has not cited any authority supporting Sergeant Marrufo's understanding, and nothing in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe's Rules of Criminal Procedure suggests that Sergeant Marrufo could not stop Farlee based on the warrant.
This Court agrees with Judge Moreno that the arrest warrant gave Sergeant Marrufo reasonable suspicion to stop Farlee's truck. Sergeant Marrufo knew the dark-purple pickup truck he saw on October 8, 2018, belonged to Farlee, and he knew that Farlee had an active arrest warrant. T. 9, 15, 18, 36. This was enough to justify the stop.
Farlee argues that the search of the safe was illegal because any probable cause created by Iwan's alert to the truck did not extend to the safe. This argument fails for the reasons explained by Judge Moreno. Indeed, an officer with probable cause to search a vehicle may search any item within that vehicle that is capable of containing the object of the search, regardless of whether the item belongs to the driver, passenger, or someone else.
Farlee argued unsuccessfully to Judge Moreno that the blood draw must be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree because the traffic stop and search of the safe were illegal.
For reasons explained above, it is hereby
ORDERED that Farlee's motion to suppress, Doc. 28, is denied. If is further
ORDERED that the Report and Recommendation, Doc. 41, is adopted.