Federal Circuits, 9th Cir. (June 08, 1966)
Docket number: 19825
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U.S. Code - Title 19: Customs Duties - 19 USC 482 - Sec. 482. Search of vehicles and persons
U.S. Supreme Court - Ker v. California, 374 U.S. 23 (1963)
U.S. Supreme Court - Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290 (1961)
U.S. Supreme Court - Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961)
U.S. Supreme Court - United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56 (1950)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Cir. - United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rosa Elvira Montoya de Hernandez, Defendant-Appellant., 731 F.2d 1369 (9th Cir. 1984) Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Rosa Elvira Montoya de Hernandez, Defendant-Appellant.
U.S. Supreme Court - United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531 (1985)
Carl L. Fabbroni, Richard E. Adams, San Diego, Cal., for appellants.
Manule L. Real, U.S. Atty., John K. Van de Kamp, Asst. U.S. Atty., Chief, Crim. Sec., J. Brin Schulman, Asst. U.S. Atty., Asst. Chief, Crim. Sec., Phillip W. Johnson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Ls Angeles, Cal., for appellee.Before BARNES and ELY, Circuit Judges, and POWELL, District Judge.POWELL, District Judge:Appellants were convicted of smuggling heroin into the United States from Mexico. They seek reversal of their conviction on the ground that evidence which was admitted at their trial was illegally obtained in violation of their rights under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America.The trial was by the court without a jury. Motion was made on behalf of Blefare only to suppress the narcotics and objection was made on behalf of each defendant to its introduction. The evidence consisted of two packets of 30% Pure heroin expelled from the stomach of appellant Blefare and three packets of 30% Pure heroin expelled from the stomach of appellant Michel. The evidence was admitted over objection and the appellants convicted. The sole question on this appeal is whether the evidence was illegally acquired.We accept the principle that the reasonableness of a search is in the first instance a substantive determination to be made by the trial court from the facts and circumstances of the case. Ker v. State of California, 374 U.S. 23, 33, 83 S.Ct. 1623, 10 L.Ed.2d 726 (1963).The determination was made on conflicting evidence. We must consider this evidence in the light most favorable to the Government to see whether it would support the determination of the trial court that the evidence was properly admissible over objection and that the judgment of conviction is supported by substantial evidence. Noto v. United States, 367 U.S. 290, 296, 81 S.Ct. 1517, 6 L.Ed.2d 836 (1961).Prior to March 27, 1964, Customs Agent Quinlan of San Diego was advised of a meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at which there were present some members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the appellant Blefare. At that meeting Blefare stated that on a previous trip on February 21, 1964, he had brought back from Tijuana, Mexico, to Canada about an ounce of heroin in his stomach. He stated that he and other people were aware of rectal probes being used and that they were now swallowing heroin to bring it across the border. All of the above information was related to Agent Quinlan by Agent Underwood of Seattle, Washington, who was personally present at the meeting in Vancouver.Agent Quinlan confirmed that Blefare had in fact been in Tijana on February 21, 1964, and when he crossed the border had been subjected to a rectal probe which was negative. Agent Quinlan talked to Agents Gates and Marey who had questioned Blefare on February 21, 1964.Agent Quinlan called the agent at Blaine, Washington, and as a result information reached Quinlan that Blefare and a companion, whose name was unknown, were down in the Tijuana area. Information was also received that Blefare was smuggling narcotics from Mexico through the United States into Canada and peddling them there. The license and description of Blefare's rented automobile were obtained and a lookout was posted at the port of entry.About 11:15 p.m. March 27, 1964, the automobile of appellants was observed coming from Mexico. It was stopped by the customs inspector at the border crossing at San Ysidro, California. Blefare was driving and Michel was seated beside him. They stated they were Canadian Citizens and were bringing no merchandise from Mexico.Appellants were taken to the search room and disrobed. A search of the clothing was negative. The arms of both appellants were heavily marked with needle marks and the experienced agents testified they evidenced the use of narcotics. Some venous marks were of recent origin. They were turned over to Agent Quinlan who accused them of carrying narcotics in their rectums or stomachs. This they denied and stated they would not object to being examined by a doctor. There was no indication of the nature of the examination.The appellants were taken to the office of Dr. Paul R. Salerno in San Diego, about 12 miles from the border. He was a qualified physician and licensed to practice in California. He had a degree in medicine and also one in pharmacology. The doctor noted the old and new puncture marks on both arms of both appellants. He administered a rectal probe on each appellant with their consent but without result.Saline solution was then given the appellants to drink to produce vomiting. They did not drink it as directed but sipped it without objection. Blefare was seen by the doctor to have regurgitated an object and reswallowed it. Dr. Salerno suggested the use of a tube procedure to recover the object.The procedure used is to pass a soft polyethylene tube, four millimeters in diameter through the nose, down the throat and into the stomach. Fluid is allowed to flow by gravity into the stomach and vomiting is induced. There is no pump. The same procedure is medically approved to remove a substance from the stomach of a child. There is no pain but some discomfort.*1Blefare stated if he were allowed to rest he would not resist the use of the tube. He talked to Agent Gore alone and said that he, Blefare, had nothing in his stomach but that Michel had three bundles or heroin in his. When asked about his reswallowing he said he was only faking to allow Michel to regurgitate and stash the substance when the officers' backs were turned.Blefare did not consent to the use of the tube. Two agents held his arms while a third held his head and the doctor inserted the tube. The tube was passed into his stomach and the solution passed through it. In a few seconds he expelled two packets containing the evidence in question. The same procedure was used on Michel, who did not object or resist, and resulted in the recovery of three packets containing the evidence here objected to.No objection was made by Michel to the anal search or drinking of the saline solution or the insertion of the tube. He was not held. (RT 129) He agreed to 'an examination' by the doctor, but the details of the proposed examination were not explained to him. There was a conflict in the evidence as to whether handcuffs were applied prior to and during the recovery of the narcotics.The doctor testified the objects were recovered in an approved manner under sanitary conditions and the same procedure would be used on an infant that had swallowed a toxic substance.2 Blefare testified he intended to remove the heroin from his stomach by induced vomiting or by the same method the doctor used.3Alternatives to the use of the stomach tube were discussed in the doctor's testimony. He testified that he considered and rejected the use of an enema. (RT 170). The use of a laxative would be dangerous. (RT 170, 172, 175). At the least one (the larger) of the two packets, marked as Exhibit 1, would not have passed through the pyloric sphincter, or the opening between the stomach and duodenum or small intestine, even with the use of laxatives. (RT 171).The three packets of Exhibit 2 might not pass through this pyloric sphincter because of the variation in its size in different individuals. (RT 172). The average size of a pyloric sphincter is approximately the diameter of a writing pencile. (RT 175). In not knowing the exact sixe of the various packets, or the exact time they had been placed in the stomach juices, it would not be 'safe medical practice' to await their possible passage event with the use of a lavative.The rubber containers can be destroyed by the action of gastric juices as they are high in phdrochloric acid content. Once the container is decomposed the heroin would be liberated into the stomach. There is risk of this occurring within 48 hours. The result would be death. Once the material is liberated, the absorption is rapid. The outer layer of the container retrieved from Blefare's stom ach was already somewhat eroded.A fluoroscope was not available in the doctor's officer. To use it effectively the patient would be required to swallow barium. (RT 187, 188). If he resisted, the barium would have to be placed in his stomach through the same tube as was used to insert the saline solution. The examination by fluoroscope would not remove the packets. It would only confirm what the agent and doctor knew to a reasonable certainty, that the packets were there. All of these events occurred about 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, March 28, 1964.To summarize, the agents knew before the search that Blefare had crossed the border five weeks earlier and had been searched without results, and that he stated he at that time had heroin in his stomach. They knew both appellants were addicts. Blefare was suspected of smuggling dope into Canada and selling it and Blefare told them Michel had heroin in his stomach and Blefare was seen to vomit and reswallow an object.The search that resulted in the recovery of the questioned evidence was a border search. While it occurred at a place removed by 12 miles from the border, the process was a continuing one and the search was not so removed in time and distance as to cause it to lose its character as a border search. Such searches have been repeated subjects of judicial inquiry.Ng Pui Yu v. United States, 352 F.2d 626, 630 (9th Cir. 1965); Taylor v. United States, 352 F.2d 328, 329 (9th Cir. 1965); King v. United States, 348 F.2d 814, 816-818 (9th Cir. 1965), cert. den'd 382 U.S. 926, 86 S.Ct. 314, 15 L.Ed.2d 339; Bible v. United States, 314 F.2d 106, 107-108 (9th Cir. 1963), cert. den'd 375 U.S. 862, 84 S.Ct. 131, 11 L.Ed.2d 89; Murgia v. United States, 285 F.2d 14, 16, (9th Cir. 1960).In King v. United States, 348 F.2d 814, 817 (9 Cir. 1965) Judge Hamlin says:'This being a border search, special rules are applicable. The statutes involved are set out in the margin. (Footnote 4 quotes pertinent parts of 19 U.S.C. 482 and 1581.) As we said in Witt v. United States, 287 F.2d 389 at 391 (9th Cir. 1961): 'No question of whether there is probable cause for a search exists when the search is incidental to the crossing of an international border, for there is reason and probable cause to search every person entering the United States from a foreign country, by reason of such entry alone. That the customs authorities do not search every person crossing the border does not mean they have waived their right to do so, when they see fit. Here a precise description of the automobile in which appellant rode across the border (though not of its passengers) had been assed to the border guards as one being a possible bearer of heroin. This it was ultimately found to be. Mere suspicion has been held enough cause for a search at the border. Cervantes v. United States, 9 Cir., 1959, 263 F.2d 800, 803, note 5."The use of body cavities to transport narcotics has become an accepted practice by experienced smugglers. This is evidenced by the frequency with which the cases have reached the courts. The Federal Courts have upheld a number of searches of the person in which rubber or cellophane bags of narcotics were taken from the anus of the arrested person and used in evidence against him. See:Blackford v. United States, 247 F.2d 745 (9th Cir. 1957) cert. denied 356 U.S. 914, 78 S.Ct. 672, 2 L.Ed.2d 586; People v. Woods, 139 Cal.App.2d 515, 293 P.2d 901 (1956), cert. denied 352 U.S. 1006, 77 S.Ct. 566, 1 L.Ed.2d 550; Application of Woods, 154 F.Supp. 932 (N.D.Cal.1957), aff'd, 9 Cir., 249 F.2d 614, cert. denied Woods v. Heinze, 356 U.S. 921, 78 S.Ct. 705, 2 L.Ed.2d 716; Murgia v. United States, 285 F.2d 14 (9th Cir. 1960), cert. denied 366 U.S. 977, 81 S.Ct. 1946, 6 L.Ed.2d 1265; 376 U.S. 946, 84 S.Ct. 803, 11 L.Ed.2d 769; Denton v. United States, 310 F.2d 129 (9th Cir. 1962); Ng Pui Yu v. United States, 352 F.2d 626 (9th Cir. 1965).The smuggler who swallows narcotics has not been so frequently prosecuted. This may be due in part to the difficulty of detection. Some knowledge of the presence of the narcotics in the stomach of the suspect is necessary. Here the circumstances gave rise to the strong presumption that narcotics were present.The courts have approved the use of an emetic to retrieve narcotics which have been swallowed. The following are cases in which objects have been recovered in that manner on border searches:United States v. Michel, 158 F.Supp. 34 (S.D.Tex.1957), affirmed as King v. United States 258 F.2d 754 (5th Cir. 1958), cert. denied 359 U.S. 939, 79 S.Ct. 652, 3 L.Ed.2d 639. (Emetic) United States v. Willis, 85 F.Supp. 745 (S.D.Cal.1949). (Evidence held inadmissible. Stomach pump) Lane v. United States, 321 F.2d 573 (5th Cir. 1963), cert. denied 377 U.S. 936, 84 S.Ct. 1340, 12 L.Ed.2d 299 (Emetic) Barrera v. United States, 276 F.2d 654 (5th Cir. 1960). (Emetic)In Rochin v. People of State of California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952) it is stated that three deputy sheriffs went to the two-story dwelling in which Rochin lived. The outside door was open and they entered and then forced open the door of Rochin's room on the second floor. He was sitting on the side of the bed. On the night stand beside him two capsules were seen by the deputies, who asked 'Whose stuff is this?' Rochin seized the capsules and put them in his mouth. The three officers then 'jumped upon him' and attempted to extract the capsules, without result. He was handcuffed and taken to a hospital. At the direction of one officer a doctor forced and emetic solution through a tube into Rochin's stomach against his will. The two capsules were vomited, which were proved to contain morphine.In the Rochin opinion the court reversed the conviction of the defendant in the State Courts of California, holding that the evidence was illegally obtained. After a discussion of the principles involved, Mr. Justice Frankfurter said:'Applying these general considerations to the circumstances of the present case, we are compelled to conclude that the proceedings by which this conviction was obtained do more than offend some fastidious squeamishness or private sentimentalism about combatting crime too energetically. This is conduct that shocks the conscience. Illegally breaking into the privacy of the petitioner, the struggle to open his mouth and remove what was there, the forcible extraction of his stomach's contents-- this course of proceeding by agents of government to obtain evidence is bound to offend even hardened sensibilities. They are methods too close to the rack and the screw to permit of constitutional differentiation.'There are many facts that make Rochin different than this case. It was not a border search. The officers were in the dwelling wrongfully. They forced their way into Rochin's room. They attempted by force to retrieve the capsules which he swallowed. In furtherance of their illegal entry and search they then took him to a hospital where an emetic was forced into his stomach. The opinion demonstrates that it was the entire sequence of events that shocked the conscience. It was the illegal invasion of the privacy of Rochin's home and the struggle to open his mouth and remove what was there that started the chain of events.Here a border search was in progress. The officers had every right to search for contraband. They had knowledge from which they were entitled to conclude that narcotics were present in the stomach of the two suspects. Although the appellants falsely denied the presence of narcotics in their stomachs, the officers knew they were addicts, that one stated the other had narcotics in his stomach, and one was seen to regurgitate an object and reswallow it.The appellants, who appeared at the border Friday night at 11:00 p.m., were taken to the doctor and requested to drink a saline solution. They did not drink it as directed. There is no evidence of brutality. Each appellant was restrained with only the force necessary to permit an emetic to be delivered into his stomach to remove its contents. A similar method would be used on a five year old child.It would shock the conscience of law abiding citizens if the officers, with the knowledge these officers had, were frustrated in the recovery and use of this evidence. It is shocking to know that these appellants swallowed narcotics to smuggle it into and through the United States for sale for profit, and chose to run the risk of the lethal substance being freed in their stomachs.To paraphrase Judge Kaufman in United States v. Guerra, 334 F.2d 138, 147 (2 Cir. 1964):'If we were mechanically to invoke Massiah (Rochin) to reverse this conviction, we would transform a meaningful expression of concern for the rights of the individual into a meaningless mechanism for the obstruction of justice.'The medical testimony, which is undisputed, leads to the conclusion that the method used to recover the narcotics from appellants caused no more pain or discomfort than a rectal probe which was challenged in Blackford, supra.We find here no violation of appellants' constitutional rights.Judgment is affirmed.BARNES, Circuit Judge (concurring).As Judge Powell has so carefully and conscientiously pointed out, the facts in this case do not resemble those of the Rochin case (342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952)), as my Brother Ely would have us believe, but more closely resemble Breithaupt v. Abram, 352 U.S. 432, 77 S.Ct. 408, 1 L.Ed.2d 448 (1957).Rochin was clearly a case involving 'physical abuse.' (See 342 U.S. at 167, 72 S.Ct. at 207) There the officers 'were guilty of unlawfully breaking into and entering defendant's room and were guilty of unlawfully assaulting and battering defendant while in the room,' and, after handcuffing him, the officers 'were guilty of unlawfully assaulting, battering, torturing and falsely imprisoning the defendant at the alleged hospital.'In Rochin this 'conduct * * * shocked the conscience' of the Supreme Court. It shocks mine. It disclosed methods 'too close to the rack and screw to permit constitutional differentiation.'In Breithaupt, supra, the unconscious defendant was subjected to surgical procedure, without his consent. Yet, Mr. Justice Clark, writing for the Court, concluded:'that a blood test taken by a skilled technician is not such 'conduct that shocks the conscience,' Rochin, supra, at 172 (72 S.Ct. at page 209), nor such a method of obtaining evidence that it offends a 'sense of justice,' Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U.S. 278, 285-286 (56 S.Ct. 461, 464-465, 80 L.Ed. 682) (1936).'1 (352 U.S. at 437, 77 S.Ct. at 411.)That any invasion of the body is determinative of the due process question is urged by the minority in Breithaupt supra (352 U.S. at 441, 77 S.Ct. at 413), as the proper rule, but his is rejected by the majority opinion. Mr. Chief Justice Warren urges that due process means--'at least that law-enforcement officers in their efforts to obtain evidence from persons suspected of crime must stop short of bruising the body, breaking skin, puncturing tissue or extracting body fluids, whether they contemplate doing it by force or by stealth.' (Id. at 442, 77 S.Ct. at 414.)And Mr. Justice Douglas urges that:'the conception of due process is not limited to a prohibition of the use of force and violence against an accused. (citing Leyra v. Denno, 347 U.S. 556, 74 S.Ct. 716, 98 L.Ed. 948)' (Id. at 443, 77 S.Ct. at 414.)Yet this 'libertarian approach' was not approved by the majority.The methods used and conduct pursued in Rochin were not the methods used or conduct pursued here. Defendant Blefare willingly acquiesced to a rectal examination. He was requested to drink an emetic, and he did, without protest or Defendant Michel did not protest or object to the anal examination, the saline water swallowing or the saline solution introduced by tube. 'I just didn't say anything at all.' (R.T. 207) Blefare consented to be searched by a physician (R.T. 94), and protested only the swallowing of a tube-- a process that without contradiction was uncomfortable but not painful, and the filling of the stomach cavity with a saline solution-- a procedure frequently followed in removing foreign objects from a baby's stomach and daily used on adults in barium fluoroscopic examinations. More important, the doctor performed carefully, expertly and with medical propriety precisely that which the defendants proposed to do for and to themselves. Defendant Blefare knew when he voluntarily swallowed the narcotics he would force his body to regurgitate the lethal poison; he swallowed the packets with the intention of so retrieving them for the narctics trade-- 'using the stuff the doctor gave me.' (R.T. 9, line 11.) It does not shock my conscience to require a defendant to do, under careful medical supervision, that which defendant himself willingly and knowingly proposed to do, without medical supervision, for his own selfish pleasure or profit,2 particularly when there is uncontradicted medical testimony this is the only alternative to the creation of a lethal situation.I regret to state that it is my opinion my Brother Ely's dissenting opinion generates more fury than light on the facts of this case. He leaves the record to rely on his own adjectives and nouns. I cannot think any fair-minded reading of the record could justify the intemperate language used in his dissenting opinion.Defendants become 'victims'; they are 'manhandled'; that Michel's arms were held becomes 'violence'; and the medically simple insertion of the tube becomes a 'struggle'. Although the only evidence in the record is that the giving of an emetic after the insertion of a four millimeter (or roughly 5/16 of an inch) tube, even in a baby's stomach, is 'the best and easiest way' (R.T. 133, lines 11-14) to produce a vomiting, and that the insertion of such a tube and its use for several days is 'routine post-operatively' (R.T. 178-9), Judge Ely rejects this uncontradicted testimony for his own conclusion that because of the 'struggles', this 'violence', the 'bleeding', and 'the absence of trained medical or nursing personnel to assist the doctor in the event of rupture of the esophagus or other organs,' the procedure here used cannot be a 'procedure to which babies are frequently subjected.' Judge Ely thus assumes the role of doctor and advocate, and leaves that of an appellate judge.In his opening paragraph, Judge Ely places in quotation marks an alleged statement of Agent Quinlan-- that he suffered an 'attack of nausea.' Nowhere does Agent Quinlan so testify. Counsel for defendants-- in an attempt to color the evidence-- uses such language, but Quinlan actually denied he was ill. He stated:'Q. Now what did you seek of these officers (in the other rooms on the doctor's premises), as you spoke with them after the Defendant Michel was given the cup of solution?'A. After he was given the cup of solution?'Q. Yes.'A. Well to tell you the truth, I was just getting out of there. I have a sort of weak stomach, and I was just getting out of there for relief, asking someone else to go on in to sit for awhile, while I went out and had a smoke.'Q. The rectal probing and the giving of the cup of solution made you ill, Officer?'A. Not ill, but I didn't feel too good about it either.' (R.T. 124, line 24 to 125, line 10.)Further, whatever feeling Officer Quinlan had was unrelated in any way to the use of the tube to the stomach, for up to the time when the incident occurred no tube had as yet been used. It is the use of such tube to which my Brother Ely objects not a rectal probe or the use of an emetic. The tube plus an emetic or an emetic alone produce a similar retching and vomiting. It seems to me too nice a distinction to automatically classify the first such result as 'revolting' and 'savage,' while the second is not.Again, while there is an admitted conflict in the evidence on certain points, we are required to accept the evidence which supports the finding of fact. This the majority opinion does, and states (with reference to transcript pages), the defendant Michel made no objection whatever to either the anal search, the drinking of the saline solution, or the insertion of the tube. In the dissent, however, (fifth paragraph) it is said 'the victims were forceably manhandled.'Again, my Brother Ely continues to set up straw men that he may strike them down. He states the majority opinion places 'great reliance upon the fact that both defendants did disgorge illicit contraband.' That the defendants did is mentioned as a fact in the case, but nowhere is it suggested in the majority opinion that the results of an illegal search can ever justify such a search.Once again, my Brother Ely paints a bloody picture in aid of his legal position. He asserts 'the forcing of the tube into his (Michel's) stomach was attended with such violence as to induce bleeding.' The facts are later enlarged so that he finds 'a tube was so imperfectly jammed through and into his nose and body as to produce torn tissue and consequent bleeding.'Never once during the original hearing of the motion to suppress was there any reference to blood or torn tissue (R.T. 1-53). The only references in the Reporter's Transcript to bleeding occur: (1) At page 79, referring to blood smears on Michel's arm from his injecting heroin into his arm. (2) At page 187, the existence of any blood coming from Michel was denied. (3) At page 203, the defendant Michel said: 'After I brought up the packets, I kept throwing up and throwing up, and I brought up a little bit of blood.'3More fundamentally, I fail to see how the dissenting opinion reaches the evil it purports to be against. It does not go on to say that the 'bodily intrusion' (undertaken upon reasonable cause by a border officer, but 'independent of consultation with any judicial officer') would be eliminated by requiring the obtaining of a search warrant, presumably a warrant to authorize the tube feeding of an emetic. The minority opinion frankly states 'there was no feasible alternative procedure to enable the officers to search appellants' stomach.' Should misguided law violators be freed to permit them to produce their own vomiting, in their own way, or, if this were not done, to die? Neither course could suffice, and recognizing this, the dissenting opinion merely suggests that we should pass on each case as to whether the search was reasonable or was not reasonable. He concludes it was not reasonable here-- because of the possibility of obtaining a search warrant. Assuming that a search warrant could properly be issued for a border search, I fail to see how the warrant would make the actual performance of the search by emetics more reasonable.I prefer the Fifth Circuit solution to the problem. King v. United States, 258 F.2d 754 (5th Cir. 1958); Ramirez v. United States, 263 F.2d 385 (5th Cir. 1959); Barrera v. United States, 276 F.2d 654 (5th Cir. 1960); Lane v. United States, 321 F.2d 573 (5th Cir. 1963), cert. den.Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
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