Federal Judge Approves Limited Seizure Of Passports And Consented Search Of Cocaine Laden Airplane Flown By Dagoberto Garcia-Guillen And His Brother, Jesus Adolfo Garcia-Guillen, Into Bowling Green, Kentucky, Airport.
Ruling paves way for trial of two arrested on cocaine charges
By JUSTIN STORY
Suspected cocaine seized by police from an airplane that flew into the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport last year will be allowed to be entered as evidence in a federal trial involving two brothers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph McKinley denied a motion by attorneys for Dagoberto Garcia-Guillen and his brother, Jesus Adolfo Garcia-Guillen, to suppress evidence in the case pending against them in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green.
Dagoberto, 21 and Jesus, 27, are each charged with possession and conspiracy to possess five kilograms or more of cocaine. The brothers are Mexican nationals.
Authorities claim that Dagoberto flew a twin-engine plane into the airport Oct. 1, a plane that the federal Department of Homeland Security had been tracking based on prior suspicious activity when it stopped to refuel in Oklahoma earlier that day.
Three officers from the Bowling Green Police Department met the pair at the airport as the plane was being refueled and interviewed Dagoberto, who was fluent enough in English to communicate with police.
Those officers would testify March 19 in federal court about their actions during their encounter with the brothers.
While one officer retained the passports of both men and Dagoberto’s pilot’s license, another officer searched the plane after consent was obtained from Dagoberto and allegedly found two suitcases containing 32 packages of cocaine totaling more than 70 pounds.
The 21-page ruling issued June 30 by McKinley rebuts the argument by the defendants that the search of the plane by the Bowling Green Police Department was unconstitutional.
Attorney Robert Kuzas of Chicago argued that while Dagoberto gave consent to police to search the plane, the consent was invalid because he and his brother were unlawfully seized and police exceeded the scope of their search by looking through closed containers within the plane.
Federal prosecutors claimed that the consent given was voluntary and that the search was not unlawful.
According to McKinley’s ruling, police retained the brothers’ documents for about two-and-a-half minutes before consent to search the plane was granted - a reasonable amount of time for police to examine the documents.
“The court finds that the retention of identification for two-and-a-half minutes ... is not an unreasonable retention and a reasonable person would not feel seized during such an encounter,” the ruling states. “This is especially true in light of the type of documents that the officers were attempting to verify; two foreign passports and a pilot’s license.”
McKinley also determined that the BGPD did not exceed the scope of its search, writing that law enforcement’s request to search the plane was open-ended and that a reasonable person would have no cause to believe the search would have been limited to the confines of the plane and not the containers within it.
The ruling paves the way for the pair to go to trial on the charges against them.
McKinley scheduled the matter to go before a jury in Bowling Green on Aug. 9. The trial, if conducted, is anticipated to last three days.
By JUSTIN STORY
Suspected cocaine seized by police from an airplane that flew into the Bowling Green-Warren County Regional Airport last year will be allowed to be entered as evidence in a federal trial involving two brothers.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph McKinley denied a motion by attorneys for Dagoberto Garcia-Guillen and his brother, Jesus Adolfo Garcia-Guillen, to suppress evidence in the case pending against them in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green.
Dagoberto, 21 and Jesus, 27, are each charged with possession and conspiracy to possess five kilograms or more of cocaine. The brothers are Mexican nationals.
Authorities claim that Dagoberto flew a twin-engine plane into the airport Oct. 1, a plane that the federal Department of Homeland Security had been tracking based on prior suspicious activity when it stopped to refuel in Oklahoma earlier that day.
Three officers from the Bowling Green Police Department met the pair at the airport as the plane was being refueled and interviewed Dagoberto, who was fluent enough in English to communicate with police.
Those officers would testify March 19 in federal court about their actions during their encounter with the brothers.
While one officer retained the passports of both men and Dagoberto’s pilot’s license, another officer searched the plane after consent was obtained from Dagoberto and allegedly found two suitcases containing 32 packages of cocaine totaling more than 70 pounds.
The 21-page ruling issued June 30 by McKinley rebuts the argument by the defendants that the search of the plane by the Bowling Green Police Department was unconstitutional.
Attorney Robert Kuzas of Chicago argued that while Dagoberto gave consent to police to search the plane, the consent was invalid because he and his brother were unlawfully seized and police exceeded the scope of their search by looking through closed containers within the plane.
Federal prosecutors claimed that the consent given was voluntary and that the search was not unlawful.
According to McKinley’s ruling, police retained the brothers’ documents for about two-and-a-half minutes before consent to search the plane was granted - a reasonable amount of time for police to examine the documents.
“The court finds that the retention of identification for two-and-a-half minutes ... is not an unreasonable retention and a reasonable person would not feel seized during such an encounter,” the ruling states. “This is especially true in light of the type of documents that the officers were attempting to verify; two foreign passports and a pilot’s license.”
McKinley also determined that the BGPD did not exceed the scope of its search, writing that law enforcement’s request to search the plane was open-ended and that a reasonable person would have no cause to believe the search would have been limited to the confines of the plane and not the containers within it.
The ruling paves the way for the pair to go to trial on the charges against them.
McKinley scheduled the matter to go before a jury in Bowling Green on Aug. 9. The trial, if conducted, is anticipated to last three days.
Labels: Constitutional Rights, Crime, Punishment, The Constitution
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 12:19 PM
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