Melvin Jackson v. United States, 13-CF-1450 (Decided February 12, 2015)
Players: Glickman, Fisher, Farrell.
Opinion by Farrell. Sidney Bixler
for Mr. Jackson. Trial Judge: Robert
Richter.
Facts: An anonymous tipster called 911 to report that she had seen
a Black man with a gun at the bus stop between Condo Terrace and Fourth Street,
S.E. The man, according to the tipster,
was wearing a brown windbreaker and a black hat. Dispatch radioed out the description, and the
responding officer testified to seeing only one person on the block in
question—Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson was
wearing a black windbreaker and a black hat.
Mr. Jackson was stopped and frisked, and a revolver was recovered from
his person.
Issue: Did the
anonymous tip provide reasonable suspicion necessary for a lawful stop?
Holding: Yes. Relying on Prado Navarette v. California, 134 S.
Ct. 1683 (2014), the DCCA found that the 911 call bore sufficient indicia of
reliability to justify the stop. The
Court found that the contemporaneousness of the report and the fact that the
caller used the 911 emergency system weighed in favor of the tip’s reliability.
The Court also found that the description was adequately particularized to Mr.
Jackson, especially considering there was no one else around (the difference in
jacket color was immaterial to the Court). DH.
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