USMJ just doesn\u2019t buy that the officer could see drugs in defendant\u2019s hand when he was running. After the stop, they were all in his pockets. United States v. M\u00e9ndez-Rodr\u00edguez, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209314 (D.P.R. Oct. 22, 2025)*:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The testimony of Villa-Gonz\u00e1lez that he observed M\u00e9ndez running with a Ziplock bag in his hand containing what in his experience was controlled substances, is simply not credible. I was able to observe the agent’s demeanor and inflection while testifying before me. He testified with ease on direct but was confronted with several mistakes and material omissions on cross examination. In addition to his story defying credulity, and the strong incentive Villa-Gonz\u00e1lez had to manufacture a narrative supporting his assertion of probable cause, there were also significant inconsistencies with the testimony (both internal and external) that are impossible for me to overlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an initial matter, it is undisputed that the work plan to intervene at La Perla on October 8, 2024, did not include a mention of M\u00e9ndez. The officers arrived at La Perla in unmarked vehicles and in plain clothes. But they had their police issued identifications. There is no question that police presence was immediately noticed because consistent with prior police interventions at La Perla, individuals began running as soon as the police entered. Thus, it is clear to me that M\u00e9ndez took off running on October 8, 2024, when the police showed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said, I agree with the Defense that for me to assign credibility to Villa-Gonz\u00e1lez with respect to the critical observation I would have to believe that M\u00e9ndez, who had taken steps to hide all of the contraband in his pockets (and we know this because this is where most of the contraband was seized following his arrest), decided to hold on to a bag full of cocaine baggies for the whole world to see. What’s more, the Government is asking me to believe that having had many opportunities to discard the bag as he ran through a maze of abandoned structures full of garbage and debris, the Defendant made the conscious decision to hold on to the incriminating evidence. I find this proposition to be untenable. Judges should not be asked to believe as judges what we would not believe as persons. See Landron-Class v. United States, 86 F. Supp. 3d 64, 78 (D.P.R. 2015). Alternatively, the demonstration provided at the hearing of a clear plastic bag of the same size as the Ziplock bag seized that day, shows the implausibility of Villa-Gonz\u00e1lez’ testimony that he was able to readily identify the contents of the bag as containing controlled substance. The way that M\u00e9ndez was allegedly gripping the bag, and as he was swinging his arms while running, makes it impossible that anyone could readily see the contents with enough clarity in a fluid, rapidly evolving scenario, to conclude, or even suspect, that it was drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
USMJ just doesn\u2019t buy that the officer could see drugs in defendant\u2019s hand when he was running. After the stop, they were all in his pockets. United States v. M\u00e9ndez-Rodr\u00edguez, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209314 (D.P.R. Oct. 22, 2025)*:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-suspicion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62180,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62176\/revisions\/62180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}