{ "id": 8522147, "name": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ANTOINE LAVELLE SANDERS", "name_abbreviation": "State v. Sanders", "decision_date": "1993-11-02", "docket_number": "No. 9226SC1339", "first_page": "477", "last_page": "483", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "112 N.C. App. 477" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C. Ct. App.", "id": 14983, "name": "North Carolina Court of Appeals" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 90-95", "category": "laws:leg_statute", "reporter": "N.C. Gen. Stat.", "year": 1992, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "(h)" } ], "opinion_index": -1 }, { "cite": "145 S.E.2d 912", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1966, "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "266 N.C. 342", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8560591 ], "year": 1966, "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/266/0342-01" ] }, { "cite": "412 S.E.2d 91", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "weight": 2, "year": 1992, "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "330 N.C. 615", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 2509154, 2508263, 2508168, 2512652, 2510555 ], "year": 1992, "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/330/0615-05", "/nc/330/0615-03", "/nc/330/0615-02", "/nc/330/0615-04", "/nc/330/0615-01" ] }, { "cite": "407 S.E.2d 583", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "year": 1991, "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "103 N.C. App. 708", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C. App.", "case_ids": [ 8523227 ], "year": 1991, "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc-app/103/0708-01" ] }, { "cite": "291 S.E.2d 637", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "S.E.2d", "weight": 5, "year": 1982, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "742" }, { "page": "642" }, { "page": "741" }, { "page": "641" } ], "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "305 N.C. 734", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8573152 ], "year": 1982, "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/305/0734-01" ] }, { "cite": "124 L.Ed.2d 334", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "L. Ed. 2d", "case_ids": [ 12205 ], "weight": 6, "year": 1993, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "343-44" }, { "page": "344" }, { "page": "346" }, { "page": "345-46" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/us/508/0366-01" ] }, { "cite": "392 U.S. 1", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "U.S.", "case_ids": [ 6167798 ], "weight": 6, "year": 1968, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "24" }, { "page": "908" }, { "page": "30" }, { "page": "911" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/us/392/0001-01" ] }, { "cite": "440 U.S. 648", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "U.S.", "case_ids": [ 6187389 ], "weight": 6, "year": 1979, "pin_cites": [ { "page": "663" }, { "page": "673" }, { "page": "663" }, { "page": "673-74" } ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/us/440/0648-01" ] }, { "cite": "367 U.S. 643", "category": "reporters:federal", "reporter": "U.S.", "case_ids": [ 1785580 ], "weight": 2, "year": 1961, "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/us/367/0643-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 706, "char_count": 15143, "ocr_confidence": 0.766, "pagerank": { "raw": 3.7307961316593733e-07, "percentile": 0.8942814812755493 }, "sha256": "5cb643e14b7ea66397e6566e6e6626877680c26a70d7714a9013d8e30226382d", "simhash": "1:a41ff2513f482eeb", "word_count": 2480 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T15:48:17.524906+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [ "Judges JOHNSON and COZORT concur." ], "parties": [ "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ANTOINE LAVELLE SANDERS" ], "opinions": [ { "text": "MCCRODDEN, Judge.\nDefendant attacks the trial court\u2019s denial of his motion to suppress on two bases: (1) the officers\u2019 initial stop of him was an unreasonable detention, and (2) the search of him and the subsequent seizure of cocaine were unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. The evidence presented at the hearing on the motion to suppress tended to show the following. During the afternoon of 27 March 1992, Troopers V.C. Lessane and Brian Gregory of the North Carolina Highway Patrol set up a driver\u2019s license check at the west ramp of North Carolina Highway 16 at Beattie\u2019s Ford Road in Mecklenburg County. They posted no signs warning the public that a license check was being conducted. The troopers checked every car that approached the check point unless they were busy writing citations.\nAt approximately 1:45 in the afternoon, a white Pontiac Grand Am driven by defendant exited Highway 16 and entered the west ramp. As defendant approached the check point, he appeared to come to a complete stop about 150 feet away from Trooper Lessane. Defendant then drove up to the check point, stopped the car, and rolled down his window. In response to Trooper Lessane\u2019s request for his driver\u2019s license and registration, defendant informed him that he did not have any identification, did not have the registration, and was not the owner of the car. The passenger in the car also failed to produce any identification.\nTrooper Lessane then asked defendant to get out of the car. As defendant stepped from the vehicle, Trooper Lessane noticed a bulge about the size of two fists in the right pocket of defendant\u2019s jacket. The trooper then told defendant to face the car and place his hands on the car so that he could pat defendant down for weapons.\nAs defendant turned away from Trooper Lessane and placed his hands on the car, Trooper Lessane observed plastic protruding from the right pocket. While frisking defendant, the officer touched the bulge and noted that it felt like \u201chard flour dough.\u201d Trooper Lessane then removed from defendant\u2019s pocket a plastic bag which contained three smaller bags holding cocaine.\nWe first address defendant\u2019s argument that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence produced by the search and seizure because the officers\u2019 initial stop of him was an unreasonable detention under principles of the Fourth Amendment made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961). In support of his contention, defendant cites the case of Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979). We find compliance with the principles enunciated in Prouse, and we reject defendant\u2019s argument.\nIn Prouse, the Supreme Court, holding that stopping an automobile and detaining its occupants implicated the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable seizures, stated:\n[E]xcept in those situations in which there is at least articulable and reasonable suspicion that a motorist is unlicensed or that an automobile is not registered, or that either the vehicle or an occupant is otherwise subject to seizure for violation of law, stopping an automobile and detaining the driver in order to check his driver\u2019s license and the registration of the automobile are unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.\nId. at 663, 59 L.Ed.2d at 673. Prouse, however, excepted from this general rule systematic roadblocks by which law enforcement officers stop all cars or use some random method of selecting cars to stop in order to check licenses and registrations. The Court specifically allowed states to develop methods for \u201cspot checks that involve less intrusion or that do not involve the unconstrained exercise of discretion. Questioning of all oncoming traffic at roadblock-type stops is one possible alternative.\u201d Id. at 663, 59 L.Ed.2d at 673-74.\nIn the case at hand, the two troopers, following guidelines established by their agency, selected a location and time during daylight hours for a license check. The troopers detained every automobile that passed through the check point, with the exception of those that came through while the officers were issuing citations to the operators of other vehicles. We can find no Fourth Amendment violation in the troopers\u2019 actions, and we overrule this assignment of error.\nWe next address defendant\u2019s argument that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence of the cocaine seized by Trooper Lessane because the search of his person and the seizure of cocaine violated his Fourth Amendment rights. This argument requires us to apply the \u201cstop and frisk\u201d law of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), and the \u201cplain feel\u201d exception to the requirement of a warrant for seizing contraband, as set forth in Minnesota v. Dickerson, \u2014 U.S. \u2014, 124 L.Ed.2d 334 (1993).\nThe Fourth Amendment guarantees \u201c[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.\u201d The United States Supreme Court has stated that searches and seizures conducted outside the judicial process are per se unreasonable, subject to only a few specific, well delineated exceptions. See Minnesota v. Dickerson, \u2014 U.S. at \u2014, 124 L.Ed.2d at 343-44. Such an exception was recognized in Terry, a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that an officer may conduct a pat down search, for the purpose of determining whether the person is carrying a weapon, when the officer is justified in believing that the individual is armed and presently dangerous. Terry, 392 U.S. at 24, 20 L.Ed.2d at 908; see Dickerson, \u2014 U.S. at \u2014, 124 L.Ed.2d at 344.\nDefendant argues that Trooper Lessane was not justified under Terry in frisking him because the officer did not have \u201cthe slightest hint\u201d that he carried a weapon. We disagree. The North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Peck, 305 N.C. 734, 291 S.E.2d 637 (1982), held that in certain situations it is reasonable to seize a person and subject him to a limited search for weapons. In determining when it is reasonable to do so, the Peck Court adopted the Terry standard, i.\u00e9., \u201cwhether a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger.\u201d Id. at 742, 291 S.E.2d at 642. The Court stated:\n[W]here a police officer observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot and that the persons with whom he is dealing may be armed and presently dangerous, where in the course of investigating this behavior he identifies himself as a policeman and makes reasonable inquiries, and where nothing in the initial stages of the encounter serves to dispel his reasonable fear for his own or others\u2019 safety, he is entitled for the protection of himself and others in the area to conduct a carefully limited search of the outer clothing of such person in an attempt to discover weapons which might be used to assault him.\nId. at 741, 291 S.E.2d at 641 (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 911).\nIn applying this standard to the facts in the instant case, it is clear that Trooper Lessane was justified in conducting a limited search of defendant for weapons because he could reasonably have concluded that defendant was involved in criminal activity and that the defendant might be armed. The evidence shows that, when defendant exited Highway 16 and entered the ramp, he appeared to stop before approaching the license check point; once at the check point, defendant informed Trooper Lessane that he was carrying no identification, did not own the vehicle, and could provide no registration for the car. In light of his unusual behavior, Trooper Lessane legitimately asked defendant to step out of the car. See State v. Hudson, 103 N.C. App. 708, 407 S.E.2d 583 (1991), disc. review denied, 330 N.C. 615, 412 S.E.2d 91 (1992). Trooper Lessane testified that people who are driving stolen cars often provide officers with false names and insist that they have no identification. We find these facts sufficient to create a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity might be afoot, to wit: that the car might have been stolen.\nFurthermore, after observing defendant\u2019s suspicious conduct, Trooper Lessane noticed a bulge in defendant\u2019s jacket pocket as defendant exited the vehicle. He testified that he was \u201cmainly concerned about a weapon\u201d and determining whether defendant was armed was the \u201cnumber one thing.\u201d At the roadblock he asked defendant to turn around and put his hands on the car so that he could search him for weapons. Due to defendant\u2019s behavior and the bulge in defendant\u2019s jacket pocket, it was reasonable for Trooper Lessane to believe that defendant might have been armed.\nHaving concluded that Trooper Lessane\u2019s determination to frisk defendant was lawful under the Fourth Amendment, we must next determine whether Trooper Lessane was acting within the bounds marked by Terry during the frisk. We hold that he was. In Dickerson, the Supreme Court stated that:\nIf a police officer lawfully pats down a suspect\u2019s outer clothing and feels an object whose contour or mass makes its identity immediately apparent, there has been no invasion of the suspect\u2019s privacy beyond that already authorized by the officer\u2019s search for weapons; if the object is contraband, its warrantless seizure would be justified by the same practical considerations that inhere in the plain view context.\nId. at \u2014, 124 L.Ed.2d at 346. The Court analogized the tactile discoveries of contraband to the plain-view doctrine, finding that the plain-view doctrine has an obvious application to instances in which an officer discovers contraband through his sense of touch during an otherwise lawful search. Id. at \u2014, 124 L.Ed.2d at 345-46. The Dickerson Court was concerned that, in conducting a search of this nature, an officer not go beyond the invasion of privacy necessary to determine whether the subject has a weapon. In the case before it, the Court determined that the officer had overstepped the bounds of Terry when, without believing the object to be a weapon, he squeezed, slid and otherwise manipulated the contents of the defendant\u2019s pockets.\nIn the case before us, we believe that the trooper\u2019s actions in frisking were within the bounds of Terry. There is no evidence that Trooper Lessane felt the packet of cocaine in a manner that invaded the privacy of defendant beyond a pat down for weapons.\nDickerson, however, makes it clear that, prior to a lawful seizure, the identity of the contraband must be \u201cimmediately apparent,\u201d and on this requirement the State\u2019s case falls short. Trooper Lessane testified at the hearing on the motion that he observed a bulge in defendant\u2019s pocket and suspected a weapon; when, at his request, defendant leaned over his vehicle for a pat down, Trooper Lessane observed about an inch of plastic protruding from the same pocket. At that point he suspected drugs. His testimony made clear, however, that the main focus of the pat down was to ascertain whether defendant was armed. As he patted the pocket, he testified, he felt an object like \u201chard flour dough.\u201d He removed the packet of cocaine.\nThe State\u2019s case for using the seized contraband at trial, made prior to the Supreme Court\u2019s opinion in Dickerson, was deficient in one important aspect: Trooper Lessane was never asked and did not testify about whether it was immediately apparent to him that the item he felt was contraband. Failing this, his seizure of the packet of cocaine was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment and may not be used as evidence against defendant.\nWe consequently reverse the trial court\u2019s order denying defendant\u2019s motion to suppress and remand to the trial court for a determination of the motion to suppress in light of Dickerson and the foregoing opinion. See Foundry Co. v. Benfield, 266 N.C. 342, 145 S.E.2d 912 (1966).\nReversed and remanded.\nJudges JOHNSON and COZORT concur.", "type": "majority", "author": "MCCRODDEN, Judge." } ], "attorneys": [ "Attorney General Michael F. Easley, by Special Deputy Attorney General Robin P. Pendergraft, for the State.", "Paul J. Williams for defendant." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. ANTOINE LAVELLE SANDERS\nNo. 9226SC1339\n(Filed 2 November 1993)\n1. Searches and Seizures \u00a7 77 (NCI4th)\u2014 license check \u2014 defendant detained and searched \u2014 evidence seized \u2014 no unreasonable detention \u2014suppression of evidence not required\nThere was no merit to defendant\u2019s contention that the trial court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence seized from his person because the officers\u2019 initial stop of him was an unreasonable detention under principles of the Fourth Amendment, since defendant was stopped at a roadblock set up for the purpose of checking drivers\u2019 licenses and registrations, and such spot checks do not amount to unreasonable detention.\nAm Jur 2d, Searches and Seizures \u00a7\u00a7 52, 190.\n2. Searches and Seizures \u00a7 82 (NCI4th)\u2014 officer\u2019s suspicion that defendant armed \u2014determination to frisk reasonable\nAn officer\u2019s determination to frisk defendant was lawful where defendant appeared to stop before approaching a license check point; once at the check point, defendant informed the officer that he was carrying no identification, did not own the vehicle, and could provide no registration for the car; the officer could reasonably suspect that the car might have been stolen; the officer legitimately asked defendant to step out of the car; the officer then observed a bulge in defendant\u2019s pocket; the officer\u2019s concern that defendant might be armed was reasonable; and the officer could properly ask defendant to turn around and put his hands on the car so the officer could search him for weapons.\nAm Jur 2d, Searches and Seizures \u00a7\u00a7 51, 78.\n3. Searches and Seizures \u00a7 58 (NCI4th)\u2014 frisk proper \u2014 seizure of cocaine unreasonable\nAn officer properly frisked defendant where there was no evidence that the officer felt a packet of cocaine in defendant\u2019s pocket in a manner that invaded the privacy of defendant beyond a pat down for weapons; however, because the officer was never asked and did not testify about whether it was immediately apparent to him that the item he felt was contraband, his seizure of the packet of cocaine was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment and the cocaine could not be used as evidence against defendant.\nAm Jur 2d, Searches and Seizures \u00a7 161.\nAppeal by defendant from judgment entered 15 September 1992 by Judge Robert W. Kirby in Mecklenburg County Superior Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 28 September 1993.\nDefendant was charged with two counts of trafficking in drugs, in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 90-95(h) (Supp. 1992). On 31 July 1992, he filed a motion to suppress evidence seized from his person without a warrant. After hearing testimony and arguments on the motion, the trial court denied defendant\u2019s motion to suppress. Defendant then entered pleas of guilty to trafficking in cocaine by possession and trafficking in cocaine by transportation. He appeals, challenging, pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 15A-979(b) (1988), the trial court\u2019s order denying his motion to suppress.\nAttorney General Michael F. Easley, by Special Deputy Attorney General Robin P. Pendergraft, for the State.\nPaul J. Williams for defendant." }, "file_name": "0477-01", "first_page_order": 507, "last_page_order": 513 }