THE Superior Court yesterday suppressed evidence in a robbery case after finding that it was unlawfully obtained by police officers.
Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama granted defendant Cornielle Church’s motion to suppress statement/evidence gathered in violation of his 4th Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
Lizama said all evidence secured by the Department of Public Safety while Church was in custody will be excluded.
The judge said evidence on record and testimony of the witnesses support suppressing the defendant’s statement given while in custody, beginning from the moment he got into the detective’s car.
“It also supports suppression of the physical acts of defendant when escorting the police to the scene of the robbery, and subsequently, to where the purse was allegedly disposed of,” Lizama said.
“The (officers) immediately seized the vehicle and the defendant. Had they followed the proper procedure and presented an impartial judicial officer with an affidavit asserting probable cause, the evidence shows that a warrant would almost definitely have been issued for the vehicle used in the robbery,” he said.
Court records showed that on Sept. 5, 2001, at 2 a.m., two off-duty police officers witnessed a man entering a vehicle after robbing a garment worker in San Antonio.
Although the vehicle managed to elude the officers, they were able to get a description and a license plate number.
Nine days later, Church was driving up Navy Hill in the suspect’s vehicle when he was pulled over by a police officer.
The officer claimed he had been authorized to make a “violator stop,” a term commonly used by DPS for making a stop when there is reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.
No warrant had been issued for the car or the defendant. The defendant asked the officer why he had been stopped, but was told to wait for other police officers to arrive.
One of the officers then told him that the vehicle he was driving had been identified as the one used in the commission of a crime. A detective transported Church to DPS headquarters in Susupe and his vehicle was impounded.
After he filled out the constitutional waiver form, the defendant made a statement identifying a co-defendant and describing in detail the events of Sept. 5.
Church was escorted to his residence at 10:30 p.m. that day by the police without being arrested. His car remained impounded at DPS.
Church and co-defendant T-Knight Sanders Sasao were subsequently charged with robbery, conspiracy, assault and battery, theft, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and reckless driving.
Sasao had entered a plea agreement with the government. Last April, Sasao was sentenced to two years and six months in jail.
Church, however, through attorney Joe Hill, moved to suppress the statements/evidence.
