Plea & Sentencing – Probable Cause

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Antoine Richmond

Case No.: 18-1559

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and EASTERBROOK and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Plea & Sentencing – Probable Cause

Antoine Richmond entered a conditional plea of guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon. Before entering his plea, Richmond moved to suppress a handgun police seized from the threshold of his residence’s front door during an encounter on his porch. The district court denied Richmond’s motion, and he now appeals the court’s ruling. Given the totality of the circumstances, the officers’ suspicions were reasonable that Richmond was illegally carrying a gun. Because Richmond (or someone else) had ready access to the gun, officer Milone acted reasonably to extinguish a patent safety threat when he performed a brief search limited exclusively to the area where both officers saw the object, later confirmed to be a gun, was placed. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.