United States v. Lucas
United States v. Lucas
Opinion of the Court
Defendant Richard Lucas ("Defendant") stands accused by way of a one-count Indictment returned on July 11, 2017, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, in violation of
Presently before the Court is Defendant's motion seeking to suppress evidence obtained through a warrant authorized on a cellular telephone used by Mr. Daniels. (Dkt. 176). Because Defendant did not have a privacy interest in Mr. Daniels' cell phone, his Fourth Amendment rights were not implicated, even if the cell phone was tracked by law enforcement into a hotel room being used by Defendant. Accordingly, Defendant's motion is denied.
BACKGROUND
The background of this matter is set forth in detail in the Court's Decision and Order entered October 5, 2018 (Dkt. 127), familiarity with which is assumed for purposes of this Decision and Order. As a brief summary, on May 15, 2017, Defendant rented Room #113 at the Comfort Inn and Suites Buffalo Airport Hotel located at 901 Dick Road, Cheektowaga, New York 14225 (hereinafter referred to as "the Comfort Suites"). (Dkt. 35-3 at ¶ 3). On that date, Mr. Daniels was surveilled by law enforcement leaving the Comfort Suites with a blue package. Mr. Daniels was subsequently stopped by law enforcement and he had in his possession approximately 794 grams of cocaine, $ 17,000 in U.S. currency, and a key for Room #113 at the Comfort Suites. (See Dkt. 127 at 5-6, 27 n.7).
After Mr. Daniels left the Comfort Suites, Defendant and his 14-year old son arrived at the hotel's parking lot in a black 2017 Corvette. (Id. at 6). Law enforcement approached Defendant, ultimately leading to his flight and subsequent arrest. (Id. at 7-12). At the time of his arrest, Defendant had in his possession a key to Room #113 at the Comfort Suites. (See
That same day, Erie County Court Judge Kenneth F. Case signed a search warrant authorizing a search of Room #113 at the Comfort Suites. (Dkt. 44-1 at 5-6). Earlier in the investigation and prior to the search of Room #113, law enforcement obtained a search warrant to obtain real-time cell site location information for telephone number (716) 536-9617, which was possessed by Mr. Daniels. (Dkt. 184-1). The search warrant is signed by Judge Case and is dated April 17, 2017. (Id. at 2). Defendant now contends that "[b]ecause law enforcement was privy to this information, any later investigation of Dominic Daniels, his whereabouts, or the ultimate arrest of defendant Richard Lucas is subject to suppression based upon the officers' derivative use of the said information." (Dkt. 176 at 5). More specifically, Defendant argues that he is entitled to discover
DISCUSSION
Defendant Lacks Standing to Challenge the Search of Mr. Daniels' Cell Phone
The Fourth Amendment guarantees "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV. "Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights which ... may not be vicariously asserted." Rakas v. Illinois ,
Here, Defendant does not contend that he had a privacy interest in the cell phone used by Mr. Daniels. Instead, he argues that he had an expectation of privacy in Room #113 at the Comfort Suites, and that because law enforcement allegedly
The rights of the owner of the premises are as clearly invaded when the police enter and install a listening device in his house as they are when the entry is made to undertake a warrantless search for tangible property; and the prosecution as surely employs the fruits of an illegal search of the home when it offers overheard third-party conversations as it does when it introduces tangible evidence *283belonging not to the homeowner, but to others.
Defendant also relies on Kyllo v. United States ,
Defendant's contention regarding his expectation of privacy and the subsequent violation of his Fourth Amendment rights is based on his alleged privacy interest in Room #113. This contention is flawed, particularly because the information Defendant seeks to suppress was not obtained from Room #113; rather, it was collected as a result of a tracking warrant for Mr. Daniels' cell phone, in which Defendant has no expectation of privacy.
The case United States v. Peters ,
The fact that [the passenger's] cell phone happened to be located in Defendant's vehicle does not render the government's actions unconstitutional. There is no evidence that the government intentionally sought to obtain Defendant's location through the real-time location information pertaining to [the passenger's] phone. Instead, it was pure happenstance that [the passenger] entered Defendant's vehicle as opposed to her home or the vehicle or home of some other individual. There was thus no way the government could predict in advance that it would need a second warrant for Defendant's real-time location if she happened to be in proximity of [the passenger's] cell phone. The approach Defendant *284advocates is thus wholly unworkable.
Although the government does not dispute that the officers monitoring [the passenger's] location were aware that Defendant was also a target of the same investigation, her status as a person of interest does not materially alter the analysis because the government was not actively tracking her location. Even if the government believed that Defendant might come into contact with the target cell phone, such a belief is immaterial in light of a facially valid warrant authorizing the government to track the phone itself.
Accordingly, even if Defendant possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy in her real-time location information, the government did not violate that expectation and was not required to obtain a second warrant prior to arresting her. Any other conclusion would lead to unworkable and unreasonable results.
Here, there is no evidence that Defendant had possession of, or any subjective privacy interest in, Mr. Daniels' cell phone. Law enforcement did not observe Defendant using the tracked cell phone, and the cell phone was not registered to Defendant. Nor has Defendant articulated any basis showing that he had an expectation of privacy in the information from Mr. Daniels' cell phone. The fact that the cell phone was allegedly tracked to Room #113 where Defendant happened to have a privacy interest is immaterial. "A defendant bears the burden of proving that he has a legitimate expectation of privacy in an object such that he can claim the protection of the Fourth Amendment in challenging the government's search of that object." Dore ,
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Defendant's motion (Dkt. 176) is denied.
SO ORDERED.
To gain access to the underlying materials in support of the search warrant, Defendant must have a legitimate Fourth Amendment right in the property searched. See generally United States v. Pirk ,
It is not at all clear that law enforcement actually tracked Mr. Daniels' cell phone to Room #113, as opposed to more generally the Comfort Suites. Nonetheless, for purposes of resolving Defendant's motion, the Court assumes that law enforcement used a tracking device pursuant to the warrant to track Mr. Daniels to Room #113.
The defendant in Peters conceded that she did not have standing to challenge the validity of the warrant authorizing the location monitoring of the passenger's cell phone. Id. at 377.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Richard LUCAS
- Status
- Published