We are a nation of animal lovers. That’s why crimes involving animals pull at our heartstrings. A vast majority of those crimes end sadly. However, a recent incident out of Miami Beach provides a happier ending, and serves a good lesson as to the proper application of “probable cause.” (Read about it here http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/04/21/beach-cops-solve-case-of-the-pilfered-parrot/)
The story starts with a woman and her parrot. Alicia Jerez, a Miami Beach resident, owned an African Gray parrot, “Freckles.” Judging from the news report, she and Freckles are probably as close as a person and parrot can be.
Imagine her shock when she discovered, on morning on returning to her apartment, that a burglar had broken into her apartment and stolen Freckles. Alicia was distraught; after reporting the burglary to the police, she immediately set about searching for Freckles and put up flyers seeking out anyone with information on Freckles’s whereabouts.
Police officer Robert Montesinos took special notice of the flyers because of an incident from the night before. Around 3 a.m., Montesinos was on patrol outside of Jerez’s apartment complex. Suddenly he observed a man running out of the apartment complex carrying a white bird cage holding a large gray parrot. He watched the man run enter the passenger side of a waiting Mazda and followed the car as it started away from the scene.
After six blocks, the Mazda ran a stop sign. Montesinos then pulled the car over at Hargrove and 83rd St. During the stop he questioned the passenger, the same man from the apartment complex, about the parrot. The passenger stated he had “just bought the bird from someone on 82nd St.”. Montesinos, probably suspicious but unsure if a crime had been committed, let the Mazda go.
Pausing the story shortly, Officer Montesinos applied a rather sympathetic standard of probable cause in his investigation. When conducting a stop, a police officer may continue an investigation only so long as he has probable cause to do so. Probable cause can come from facts he observes or infers from the scene. After conducting the traffic stop, Montesinos knew or could have inferred the following:
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That the man, at 3 a.m., had run from an apartment complex to a waiting car while carrying a parrot. Odd, right?
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That the man probably lied when he said that he had bought the parrot from someone one block away, considering Montesinos had followed the Mazda for six blocks.
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That the man either couldn’t or wouldn’t identify the seller of the parrot.
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That one probably does not meet an unknown person at 3 a.m. to legally buy an exotic animal.
Should Officer Montesinos have let the Mazda go, knowing what he did? I think so – probable cause should require more than just bizarre circumstance, which is all that was presented to Officer Montesinos. However, defendants have been detained for less by more hard-nosed officers.
Anyway, the flyer of Freckles matched the parrot Montesino had seen the night before. Montesinos contacted Detective J. Lemus and, together, they tracked down the bird-stealer, one Anthony Jesus Jiminez. Upon being confronted a second time about the parrot, Jiminez confessed to stealing the bird and selling it to a pet store. Happily, they tracked down and rescued Freckles and reunited him with Jerez.
So the obvious question is, given the famous speech abilities of the African Gray, is there any possibility that Freckles will be called as a witness to the crime? Probably not. But the behavior of animals has more evidentiary value than you would think, especially in Virginia. More on that subject next week.