No Fourth Amendment Violation In Traffic Stop, Seizure of Occupants and Search

US v. Perry: Perry was in a SUV driven by his girlfriend, McCarr, which police observed in “an area well-known for gang activity and violent crimes.” The SUV lacked the necessary front license plate, leading officers to follow. The SUV “tried to flee” from the officers, running two stop signs. They found the SUV in a nearby parking lot, where they saw McCarr get out of the driver’s side door and Perry briefly “lean towards the ground, the floorboard” from the passenger’s seat “before jumping over the center console” to exit the SUV.

Perry and McCarr were both handcuffed. A patdown of Perry uncovered a blue bandana which, along with intelligence that Perry had gang connections, made officers conclude he was affiliated with the Crips. McCarr gave permission to search the car, which uncovered a revolver “protruding from a purse on the passenger’s-side floorboard.” McCarr said the gun belonged to Perry. A second gun was found on the passenger’s-side floorboard, which turned out to be stolen (and also belonged to Perry, according to McCarr). Perry was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, multiple counts of witness tampering (based on attempts to keep McCarr from testifying against him), and possession of marijuana. He was convicted at trial on all counts after unsuccessfully moving to suppress the evidence found during the traffic stop. He was sentenced to 210 months in prison.

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Perry’s convictions and sentence. Perry’s primary argument was that “he was unconstitutionally seized for much of the” traffic stop. The court disagreed. The SUV was seized when police found it in the parking lot and activated their blue lights, at which point they had “both probable cause of observed traffic violations and reasonable suspicion of other criminal activity.” The court rejected Perry’s argument that the investigation during the stop went beyond the basis for it (running the stop signs), concluding that “this ignores important evidence that drove the mission of the seizure,” which included investigation of other criminal activity. The court also found no violation in either the length of the stop or Perry’s detention during it, based on the observations of the officers.