United States Ninth Circuit

A conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm is vacated pursuant to a claim of erroneous denial of a motion to suppress evidence where: 1) although defendant voluntarily consented to a search of his person after he was approached by an officer while seated in his legally parked car, the encounter then escalated into an impermissible seizure; 2) the consent defendant gave to a search of his car could not be considered to be voluntary in the totality of circumstances; and 3) even if the consent was voluntary, it followed defendant's illegal seizure, and the taint of such seizure was not attenuated by further events.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/08/2007
• Decided 06/19/2007
• Published 06/19/2007

Judges

• GOULD, Circuit Judge:, Before:  RONALD M. GOULD, RICHARD A. PAEZ, and JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lisa Hay, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Portland, OR, for appellant Bennie D. Washington.


• For Appellees:
  
• Stephen F. Peifer, Assistant United States Attorney, Portland, OR, for appellee United States of America.