Kelvin Sanchez
ASSISTANT Public Defender Molly Dennert has asked the Superior Court to suppress all evidence obtained from her client during a police pat-down.
Dennert, who represents Kelvin Cabrera Sanchez, said “the stop of his person was unlawful, unreasonable, and unconstitutional.”
“The evidence seized because of this illegality, namely 9 mm ammunition and alleged methamphetamine, can be suppressed as evidenced in all future proceedings,” Dennert stated in her motion to suppress evidence.
The Office of the Attorney General has charged Sanchez, 36, with unlawful possession of ammunition and illegal possession of a controlled substance.
Defense motion
According to Dennert, late one night, an off-duty police officer was leaving DPS Central in his personally owned vehicle.
A DPS-issued radio was on in his car. At 11:25 p.m., the police officer reportedly saw a white sedan traveling southbound on Beach Road at a high rate of speed. He made a U-turn on Beach Road in Chalan Kanoa and went northbound. The police officer followed the vehicle until it parked between residential buildings.
According to the police officer’s supplemental report, soon after, he met with one adult male who walked out from a residential building. The adult male was later identified as Kelvin Sanchez, who reportedly held a small black bag with his left hand and wore a black hoodie/jacket.
“Sergeant Paul Ichihara arrived on scene at 11:31 p.m. and observed Kelvin Sanchez standing on the road while at least three other law enforcement agents were talking to him,” Dennert said. “Sergeant Ichihara conducted a pat-down search and Kelvin Sanchez complied. Sergeant Ichihara felt a short object with a rounded end in Kelvin Sanchez’s left pocket. Kelvin Sanchez answered honestly that it was a glass pipe. The vehicle with expired registration was later seized and impounded.”
Dennert added, “Kelvin Sanchez did not consent to seizure of his person, there were no exigent circumstances, law enforcement was not in hot pursuit of a felon, and this was not a search incident to lawful arrest.”
Dennert said her client “was stopped by several police officers because he was near his apartment and near a vehicle that was not his. He also happened to be wearing a black hoodie/jacket and holding a black…bag. Evidence obtained as a result of illegal seizures must be suppressed when they violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 3 of the Commonwealth Constitution.”
Dennert said glass pipes “are not clearly weapons and are not inherently dangerous. Glass pipes can be used to smoke marijuana.”
She said Sanchez, “also not inherently dangerous, was a man walking out from the land that he lived on who was essentially arrested by multiple police officers. He acquiesced to a claim of lawful authority by allowing the pat-down, but there is a difference between acquiescence to authority and consent to search.”
“Kelvin Sanchez was not even spotted in the vehicle by any law enforcement,” Dennert said. “Kelvin Sanchez probably felt he had no choice…. While he acquiesced verbally, this does not change the fact that he was a man standing on his land who was confronted abruptly by police officers on a nearby road. Nor does it change the fact that an off-duty officer followed a vehicle for what probably only amounted to a payable traffic offense. Perhaps the police officer could not clearly see Kelvin Sanchez get down from the vehicle in question. Perhaps there was a passenger. Perhaps a lot of things,” Dennert added.
She asked the court to hold a hearing so that the AG’s office can show the basis for the seizure of Sanchez’s person.
Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho has scheduled the jury trial for Sanchez for May 20, 2024, at 9 a.m.
The judge also set a pre-trial conference for today, Wednesday, March 13, at 10 a.m.
In a separate case, the judge found probable cause to charge Sanchez with assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
In that case, Sanchez was charged with assault and battery, strangulation, interfering with a domestic violence report, disturbing the peace, and domestic violence.
