US v. Bailey, No. 07-3006

By FindLaw Staff on October 27, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Cocaine Possession Conviction Affirmed

In US v. Bailey, No. 07-3006, the court affirmed defendant's conviction for possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, holding that 1) upon stopping defendant, the officers had probable cause to search his car because, as he conceded, a package containing cocaine was in plain view on the passenger's seat; and 2) defendant failed to show he was prejudiced by the government's late disclosure during trial that it could not locate a traffic ticket allegedly written when defendant was stopped for running a stop sign. However, the court reversed in part where the district court needed to consider defendant's policy objection to the career offender provision of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, section 4B1.1, in view of Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007), which was decided after appellant's sentencing.

 

As the court wrote:  "Roland Bailey appeals his conviction by a jury of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B)(ii). He contends the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the drugs seized from his car, because the police had observed no criminal activity on his part and no crime had been reported, and thus neither probable cause nor articulable suspicion existed for his arrest."

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