Federal judge bars gun evidence in criminal case due to Denver police’s unconstitutional search

By Michael Karlik and Colorado Politics 04/29/2024 | updated 1 year ago

A federal judge last week barred the government from using evidence from a man’s backpack in his prosecution for illegally possessing a weapon, following a Denver police officer’s unconstitutional search.

The Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures requires that law enforcement obtain a warrant or rely on a specific exception to the warrant requirement. To that end, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized officers, for their own safety, may search a person they have detained if they believe the suspect is armed and dangerous.

However, the government failed to show they needed to search Curron Terrier Jones’ backpack for safety reasons because he was handcuffed and physically separated from the bag when police opened it and discovered a handgun.

“In other words, at the time police officers searched Mr. Jones’s bag, Mr. Jones had no conceivable opportunity to be anywhere near his backpack, let alone exit the car, access his bag, open it, and grab the firearm,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang in an April 24 order.

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Because the handgun was revealed in the course of an unconstitutional search, Wang barred prosecutors from using it as evidence in Jones’ illegal-possession case.

Denver officers detained Jones in the 1500 block of N. Tamarac Street last August because he happened to be walking with someone else police planned to arrest. The intended target, Delorean Speaks, had an outstanding warrant and undercover officers watched him pull up to a home, go inside and exit with Jones.

Police then approached both men. Speaks threw something in the nearby grass — a gun that police quickly recovered. Officers detained Speaks and Jones. A detective asked Jones if he was wanted and learned he was on parole and probation for previous offenses. Police found no weapons or drugs on Jones.

“We’re here after your friend, man, so we ain’t even worried about you right now,” an officer told Jones. “You’re just being detained.”

Police uncuffed and re-cuffed Jones, removing his backpack in the process. Allegedly, one officer believed it felt unusually heavy and noticed Jones appeared “worried about his bag.”

Officer Derek Martinez prepared to look Jones up in an unspecified database, but a detective told him someone else was already doing it. Martinez then pivoted to searching Jones’ backpack, where he found a loaded handgun. Jones was subsequently indicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Police cruisers line East 16th Avenue after a shooting at Denver East High School on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)

Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette

Jones moved to suppress the gun evidence, arguing both his detention and the warrantless backpack search were unlawful.

“Here, officers had completed no investigation on Mr. Jones; they had no knowledge or report of a weapon in the backpack,” wrote public defender Mary V. Butterton. “The only knowledge the officers had at the time of the search was that Mr. Jones was walking with Mr. Speaks for approximately 30 seconds and that Mr. Jones had self-reported a previous conviction.”

The government relied on “officer safety” as a rationale for detaining Jones, pointing to his “connection” to Speaks. The prosecution cited Terry v. Ohio, the landmark Supreme Court decision that permitted officers to detain and frisk a person for weapons if they believe the suspect to be armed and dangerous. Again, the government pointed to Jones’ “association” with Speaks as grounds to search the bag.

“If the officers could not search the bag, they would be forced to let him go with the un-searched bag,” wrote Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dorothy Wilson.

Wang held a hearing on the issue, at which Martinez acknowledged Jones did not have any warrants for his arrest, so the officers would need to “give his possessions back to him.” Based on the circumstances, Wang concluded officers did not have reason to believe Jones was armed and dangerous, as the Terry decision required.

“Indeed, numerous courts have found bag searches unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment where the suspect was restrained and had no conceivable opportunity to access the bag,” she wrote. “Instead, the government focuses on the future possibility that, at the end of the encounter, the bag and its contents would be returned to Mr. Jones.”

Because she found the backpack search unconstitutional, Wang did not address Jones’ other claim that police lacked reasonable suspicion to detain him in the first place.

The case is United States v. Jones.

Tags denver firearm fourth amendment handgun judge nina wang scotus Terry Stop terry v. ohio unreasonable search us supreme court

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