M.D.Pa.: Cellphone could be removed during a patdown as a potential weapon

Cellphone could be removed during a Terry patdown as a potential weapon. (Apparently the number of cellphones (6 on 3 people) was important to the government’s case. There was no indication the cellphones were searched on RS.) United States v. Lopez, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36276 (M.D. Pa. April 28, 2009):

Officer Kochanny removed a phone clipped to Martin’s belt during this search, and Officer Fasan discovered at least two bulky items in Rogelio’s pockets that he removed and identified as cellular phones. (Id. at 22, 42, 102.) The officers removed a total of five or six phones from the three suspects. (Id. at 22.) The officers confiscated the phones because, in their experience, arrestees sometimes carry blunt objects similar in size and shape to cellular phones that can be used as weapons. (Id. at 102.) Phones can also be used to conceal knives, shanks, or other implements with which a suspect could injure an officer. (Id. at 21-22, 102.) Removal of the phones again heightened the officers’ suspicion because drug dealers frequently carry several phones to conceal the calls required to arrange drug transactions. (Id. at 22.)

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Reasonable suspicion supported the pat-down search in which Officers Fasan and Kochanny removed defendants’ cellular phones. As officers approached the suspects, Rogelio, Martin, and Zuniga hurried toward the opposite vehicles from those in which they had arrived. Officers noticed that the suspects had exchanged vehicle keys rather than contraband. As a result of their law enforcement training and experience, and in light of the proximity of the parking lot to the interstate, the officers reasonably believed that the suspects had conducted a car-switch transaction instead of a hand-to-hand sale. The officers knew that car-switch transactions could involve large amounts of drugs and that parties to such transactions are frequently armed. Hence, it was reasonable for them to believe that the suspects may have been armed and dangerous “because weapons and violence are frequently associated with drug transactions.” See United States v. Childs, 131 F. App’x 347, 348 n.2 (3d Cir. 2005) (quoting United States v. Robinson, 119 F.3d 663, 337 (8th Cir. 1997)). The officers were therefore entitled to conduct a pat-down search for their safety.

During the search, Officer Fasan obtained multiple cellular phones from Rogelio’s pockets, and Officer Kochanny removed a phone from Martin’s belt. Both officers’ actions were reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances. Officer Fasan removed Rogelio’s phones after feeling them from the exterior of Rogelio’s clothing. He appropriately recognized that a bulky object such as a cellular phone was a potential weapon, and he was permitted to remove the item for safety purposes. Edwards, 53 F.3d at 619 (stating that officer may remove blunt objects–such as a stack of credit cards–that could reasonably feel like a weapon). Officer Kochanny also acted reasonably by confiscating Martin’s phone because suspects may use such objects to conceal knifes, shanks, and other weapons that could threaten officer safety. Accordingly, the court concludes that the officers did not exceed the scope of a Terry pat-down by removing defendants’ cellular phones.