E.D.Cal.: Patdown by Park Ranger found box which could not be opened under the Fourth Amendment

Defendant was stopped for riding a bicycle on a roadway after dark without a light in Yosemite National Park. The officer had no reasonable suspicion that he was armed, but he asked about weapons, and defendant volunteered that he had a camping knife on him, which is normal in the Park. The officer patted him down and came upon a small hard box in his pocket that had MDMA in it. The box was not subject to “plain feel” under Dickerson and violated the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Arnold, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122924 (E.D. Cal. November 3, 2010):

Thus, the salient question is whether, considering the totality of the circumstances in this case, it was reasonable for Ranger Jacobs to believe that the small hard box in Arnold’s pocket could constitute or contain a weapon. Mr. Arnold was stopped for bicycling at night, a crime certainly not reasonably associated with an armed and dangerous perpetrator. Nothing in the record suggests that Mr. Arnold was uncooperative or acted in a threatening manner at any time during the encounter. Ranger Mitrea stood alone with Mr. Arnold, without conducting a Terry frisk, until Ranger Jacobs responded to perform field sobriety tests. Both rangers testified that Mr. Arnold showed minimal signs of intoxication.

The only inclination that Mr. Arnold was armed was his admission that he possessed a camping knife. Ranger Jacobs testified that he believed with respect to weapons, “where there’s one, there’s more”. While that may indeed be true in some cases, the facts of this case were such as to suggest the contrary. Possessing a camping knife in a National Park is so common that it cannot in and of itself suggest the likelihood of additional weapons. Mr. Arnold’s volunteering the knife’s existence is not consistent with a simultaneous desire to conceal another weapon. As noted, the nature of the crime here does not suggest the likelihood of an armed perpetrator. Clearly, the facts of this case are a far cry from those involving suspected burglars and carjackers in possession of a knife, gun, and ammunition as in Hartz.

Once the camping knife was recovered, it was not reasonable to believe that the small box in the pocket of a cooperative individual who had shown no signs of aggression was or could contain a weapon. Thus, the Court finds that removal of the box from Arnold’s pocket under these largely innocent circumstances exceeded the allowable scope of a Terry frisk. Ranger Jacobs’s manipulation of the box by removing it from Mr. Arnold’s pocket violated the Fourth Amendment.