United States v. Derryberry

In United States v. Derryberry, No. 23-60338 (5th Cir. July 11, 2024) (unpublished), the Fifth Circuit affirmed the defendant’s conviction and found that the district court properly denied his motion to suppress evidence found during the stop and search of a vehicle because an informant had tipped police off about that vehicle.

Issue: Was the traffic stop unjustified because the police’s alleged reasonable suspicion came from an unverified and ultimately incorrect tip from an unreliable informant?

An informant’s tip can create reasonable suspicion “so long as the information boasts some indicia of reliability.’” (quoting United States v. Powell, 732 F.3d 361, 369 (5th Cir. 2013)). The Fifth Circuit applies a four-part test to evaluate the reliability of an informant’s tip. It evaluates:

1. the credibility and reliability of the informant;

2. the specificity of the information contained in the tip or report;

3. the extent to which the information in the tip or report can be verified by officers in the field; and

4. whether the tip or report concerns active or recent activity, or has instead gone stale.

Id. As those factors imply, questions about informant reliability are heavily reliant on the facts of an individual case. Here, both the district court and the Fifth Circuit explored numerous facts from testimony and other evidence, although we decline to describe those facts in detail here.

Under the four-factor test for reliability, the Fifth Circuit found the district court’s conclusions “plausible in light of the record,” so it affirmed the lower court’s finding that this tip provided officers reasonable suspicion to stop Derryberry’s vehicle.