W.D.La.: License plate reader results became a factor in RS analysis

In an alien smuggling case, aside from all the normal factors of nervousness and not knowing the passenger’s names who had no luggage who he professed were friends, one factor in the reasonable suspicion in this case was the police license plate reader which had this vehicle frequently on this route. United States v. Segovia-Ayala, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21375 (W.D. La. January 23, 2015).

Defendant and his various counsel came to an impasse about the “traction” his various suppression motions had, and they weren’t fully briefed. They are effectively abandoned: “Failure to brief an argument constitutes waiver and abandonment; skeletal arguments, if undeveloped, do not suffice to put an argument before the court. United States v. Hussein, 664 F.3d 155, 161 n.2 (7th Cir. 2011).” Going to the merits anyway, defendant’s stop was based on a PV warrant in the system, and he confessed he was returning from making a heroin run to Chicago. Defendant’s last argument about he wouldn’t have made the incriminating telephone call from jail but for his illegal arrest is attenuated from the arrest itself. United States v. Thomas, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21348 (W.D. Wis. January 5, 2015).*