U.S. v. Vaccardo

In prosecution on unlawful possession of firearm by felon charge, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress seizure of firearm from backseat of defendant’s car following traffic stop on charge of running red light. Record showed that: (1) police officer noticed that after stop defendant made suspicious moves of bending at waist and then moving torso and both arms into back seat of car; (2) officer perceived that defendant might be getting control of something from back seat and then ordered defendant out of car and patted him down; (3) defendant appeared nervous and mentioned that “people are trying to kill me;” and (4) officer eventually handcuffed defendant, placed him in back seat of locked squad car and searched defendant car, where he found rifle in back seat. Defendant’s furtive movements and officer’s perception that defendant was on drugs provided officer with reasonable suspicion that defendant had potentially concealed firearm in car so as to support officer giving defendant protective frisk. Also, search of car was reasonable under Long, 463 U.S. 1032, since: (1) defendant was not under arrest throughout encounter; (2) defendant could still be dangerous if allowed to return to vehicle; and (3) officers harbored reasonable belief that defendant had concealed weapon/drugs via his furtive movements. Result would be different if defendant had been under arrest at time of search.