State v. Bush, Unpublished Decision (3-9-2001)
State v. Bush, Unpublished Decision (3-9-2001)
Opinion of the Court
The evidence, uncontradicted at trial, showed that two Cincinnati police officers, responding to a radio broadcast, joined the search for a drug-trafficking suspect described as an African-American male wearing dark clothing. The officers searched a nearby vacant lot where the suspect had last been seen. The vacant lot contained several long-abandoned automobiles. The officers spotted Bush, an African-American male, seated in the driver's seat of one abandoned automobile. He was leaning over the vehicle's passenger seat. The officers ordered Bush to raise his hands to where they could be seen. As Bush was raising his hands, he dropped a light-colored piece of paper from his left hand. Bush was removed from the vehicle, and the officers determined that he was not the suspect they were seeking. The officers examined the paper Bush had abandoned and found that it contained crack cocaine. Bush told the officers that he intended to smoke the crack.
In his fourth assignment of error, Bush claims that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress, as "[t]he police officers [sic] actions in seizing and searching" him were not based upon probable cause or upon a reasonable, articulable suspicion that he had committed a crime.
From the evidence offered at the hearing on Bush's motion to suppress, it is beyond doubt that the officers had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that Bush might be the fleeing drug trafficker, and their brief detention of him while they questioned his identity was a constitutionally legitimate seizure of his person, pursuant to Terry v.Ohio (1968),
A person who claims protection from an unlawful search under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments must show that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the invaded place. See United States v. Salvucci (1980),
Moreover, an individual lacks standing to object to the seizure of property that he has voluntarily abandoned. See State v. Freeman (1980),
Here, unlike in State v. Bailey, there is ample evidence that Bush had voluntarily abandoned the cocaine-laden paper as a result of, but prior to yielding to, the officers' commands to raise his hands. In a similar case, the Eighth District Court of Appeals held that a defendant's voluntary abandonment of contraband, after officers had ordered him to stop, but before he had submitted to their authority, denied him standing to contest the admission of the contraband, because there had not been a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. See State v.Duganitz (May 5, 1994), Cuyahoga App. No. 65328, unreported; see, also,California v. Hodari D. (1991),
Bush did not show that he had any proprietary or possessory interest, or legitimate expectation of privacy, in the abandoned automobile, and the record reveals only that he voluntarily abandoned the cocaine-laden paper before submitting to the officers' assertion of authority. Therefore, Bush did not have standing to challenge the seizure of the crack cocaine. The fourth assignment of error is overruled.
In two related assignments of error, Bush next claims that his conviction was not supported by sufficient evidence and was against the manifest weight of the evidence. To reverse a conviction on the manifest weight of the evidence, a reviewing court must review the entire record, weigh the evidence and all reasonable inferences, consider the credibility of the witnesses and conclude that, in resolving conflicts in the evidence, the trier of fact clearly lost its way and created a manifest miscarriage of justice. See State v. Thompkins (1997),
Our review of the entire record does not persuade us that the jury, sitting as the trier of fact, clearly lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be reversed and a new trial ordered. See Tibbs v. Florida (1982),
The record further establishes that the state offered substantial, credible evidence from which the trier of fact could have reasonably concluded that all elements of the charged crime had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. See State v. Waddy (1991),
Neither did the trial court err in denying Bush's motion for judgment of acquittal, as reasonable minds could have reached different conclusions as to whether each element of the crime charged had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. See Crim.R. 29; see, also, State v.Bridgeman (1978),
Bush's fifth assignment of error, in which he claims that the trial court improperly limited his cross-examination of the state's witnesses at trial, and thus his right to confront the witnesses against him, is overruled. See, generally, Delaware v. Van Arsdall (1986),
Therefore, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Gorman, P.J., Painter and Shannon, JJ.
Raymond E. Shannon, retired, from the First Appellate District, sitting by assignment.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.