State v. McGraw & Killeen
State v. McGraw & Killeen
Opinion of the Court
The State appeals from the district court's orders granting Brian McGraw's and Lacey Killeen's motions to suppress evidence resulting from a search subsequent to a drug-dog sniff conducted during a traffic stop. The State argues that the officers did not abandon the initial purpose of the traffic stop, and therefore the district court erred in granting the suppression motions. For the reasons explained below, we reverse and remand.
I.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
While on patrol, a police officer (Officer One) conducted a traffic stop on a car driven by Killeen in which McGraw was a passenger. A second officer (Officer Two), who was close by, heard the stop over dispatch and arrived at the scene shortly after the stop was initiated. During the course of the traffic stop, Officer One questioned both McGraw and Killeen regarding their probation and/or parole statuses, and McGraw answered that he was on parole for delivery of marijuana. After his initial conversation with Killeen and McGraw, Officer One performed his routine functions for a traffic stop including identifying the car's occupants through dispatch, determining whether there were any outstanding warrants, and checking Killeen's driver's license status. Upon receiving returns from dispatch, Officer One asked Killeen to step out of the car and advised her he was going to have his canine sniff the car while he wrote a citation. When Officer One removed Killeen from the car, Officer Two engaged McGraw in conversation and ultimately had him exit the vehicle as well.
*1247As Officer One was writing the citation, Officer Two volunteered to complete the citation while Officer One deployed his canine. Officer One transferred the citation writing task to Officer Two and retrieved the canine. The canine alerted and, as a result, the officers searched the vehicle. The search produced marijuana, methamphetamine, and drug paraphernalia. Killeen and McGraw were arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of paraphernalia. The district court consolidated Killeen's and McGraw's cases.
Killeen and McGraw filed motions to suppress evidence obtained during the search of Killeen's vehicle arguing, in relevant part, that the traffic stop was unlawfully prolonged. The district court granted the motion because Officer One abandoned the original purpose of the stop. The State appeals.
II.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
The standard of review of a suppression motion is bifurcated. When a decision on a motion to suppress is challenged, we accept the trial court's findings of fact that are supported by substantial evidence, but we freely review the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found. State v. Atkinson ,
III.
ANALYSIS
Killeen and McGraw filed separate motions to suppress. Killeen's motion asserted there were "numerous acts unrelated to the traffic stop that thereby extended the stop in violation of the constitution." Killeen identified those acts as Officer One's inquiry into Killeen's and McGraw's parole statuses, Officer One explaining he "was going to run a dog around the vehicle" and inquiring whether there was "anything illegal" in the car, and Officer One requesting consent to search. McGraw, on the other hand, requested suppression on the basis that the stop was unlawfully extended when Officer One "directed" Officer Two to issue a citation while Officer One deployed his canine, and on the basis that the stop was pretextual. The district court denied suppression on the grounds that the stop was pretextual, but granted suppression on the basis that Officer One abandoned the original purpose of the stop. With respect to the latter, the district court made the following factual findings and legal conclusion:
There was nothing that I heard from the conversation with Ms. Killeen or Mr. McGraw including his acknowledgment that he was on parole in and of itself that suggests that the stop could be extended based on new reasonable suspicion. It is clear to me given the sequence of events that [Officer One] himself actually did abandon the purpose of the stop when he handed the ticket book off to [Officer Two].
And I appreciate that it took somewhere between two and five seconds to exchange the ticket book, but that act and the act of [Officer Two] then leaving the hood of the car and going into the car to turn the lights off and going around the back of the car to begin writing the citation, and, frankly, while he was moderately engaging Ms. Killeen in an apparent effort to complete the citation, it appeared to me that he was likely covering [Officer One] at the same time. It would be difficult to believe, and I would find it incredible, if he were to have told me that he wasn't paying attention to [Officer One] while ostensibly writing the citation and he wasn't continuously writing the citation from my review of the evidence. So I think that [Officer One], in fact, did abandon that purpose.
....
So I can't find any basis not to regard this as an unlawful extension of the original stop based on [ State v. Linze ,161 Idaho 605 ,389 P.3d 150 (2016) ] based on [
*1248Rodriguez v. United States , --- U.S. ----,135 S.Ct. 1609 ,191 L.Ed.2d 492 (2015) ] on which Linze is based. I think that [Officer One] did abandon the original purpose. It was a de minimis violation. But as we know from Linze and Rodriguez , de minimis violations are still violations.
The State argues that the district court erred because the act of exchanging the citation book did not constitute abandonment of the stop, but was the opposite of abandonment. The State further argues that, because the officers "cumulatively continued to diligently pursue the purpose of the stop," there was no Fourth Amendment violation. Killeen and McGraw argue that Officer One's abandonment unreasonably extended the stop because the act of handing the citation book to Officer Two "added time" to the stop. Killeen also argues that Officer Two added time to the stop by not continually writing the citation, and Officer One "deviated from the initial purpose of the stop" by removing Killeen from the vehicle. We conclude that suppression was not proper in this case.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." As its text indicates, the " 'touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness. The Fourth Amendment does not proscribe all state-initiated searches and seizures; it merely proscribes those which are unreasonable.' " State v. Rios ,
A traffic stop by an officer constitutes a seizure of the vehicle's occupants and implicates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. Delaware v. Prouse ,
In this case, the district court found that Killeen and McGraw were entitled to suppression because Officer One abandoned the purpose of the traffic stop in order to conduct the dog sniff.
In Rodriguez , an officer conducted a traffic stop after observing a car driving on the shoulder of the road in violation of state law. Rodriguez , --- U.S. ----,
In Linze , an officer stopped a vehicle for having a cracked windshield and, as he was writing the citation, he paused to call a canine unit. Linze ,
Unlike Rodriguez , the dog sniff in this case did not occur after the traffic stop was complete; it occurred during the traffic stop. Thus, the dog sniff did not "add time" to the stop in the way the dog sniff did in Rodriguez . And, unlike Linze , the stop in this case was not suspended while the dog sniff occurred, so it did not add time to the stop in the way the sniff did in Linze . Because of the factual differences, Rodriguez and Linze are *1250distinguishable. If anything, footnote 1 from Linze supports our conclusion that suppression is unwarranted on these facts. As our Supreme Court noted in Linze , the "adds time to" framework from Rodriguez is intended to "allow for dog sniffs that do not add time to the stop (i.e., dog sniffs in which one officer continues to pursue the original objectives of the stop while a second officer conducts a dog sniff)." Linze ,
Our conclusion, that no Fourth Amendment violation occurred, comports with Rodriguez and Linze and gives meaning to the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness requirement. Because the drug-dog sniff in this case did not violate the Fourth Amendment, the district court erred in granting Killeen's and McGraw's motions to suppress and in dismissing their cases on that basis.
IV.
CONCLUSION
Because the drug-dog sniff in this case was conducted during the course of a lawful traffic stop, there was no Fourth Amendment violation. Thus, Killeen and McGraw were not entitled to suppression of the evidence discovered as a result of the search that occurred following the positive dog alert. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's orders granting McGraw's and Killeen's motions to suppress and remand this case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Chief Judge GRATTON concurs.
Our review is limited to the district court's factual findings and its legal conclusion that Officer One abandoned the purpose of the traffic stop. See Atkinson ,
Dissenting Opinion
I respectfully dissent, and I would affirm the district court's orders granting McGraw's and Killeen's motions to suppress. Based on the testimony and recordings of the traffic stop, there was substantial evidence to support a finding that the officers detoured from the initial purpose of the stop and that the collective acts of the officers to conduct an investigation of contraband extended the traffic stop for longer than was reasonably necessary to accomplish the tasks tied to the traffic infraction.
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." U.S. CONST. amend. IV. A traffic stop by an officer constitutes a seizure of the vehicle's occupants and implicates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. Delaware v. Prouse ,
The scope of the intrusion permitted will vary to some extent with the particular facts and circumstances of each case. State v. Roe ,
Similarly, an officer may take certain precautions to ensure officer safety because "the government's officer safety interest stems from the mission of the stop itself."
Brief inquiries not otherwise related to the initial purpose of the stop do not necessarily violate a detainee's Fourth Amendment rights. Roe ,
However, a traffic stop's purpose does not encompass "[o]n-scene investigation into other crimes." Rodriguez , --- U.S. ----,
"A seizure justified only by a police-observed traffic violation, therefore, becomes unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission of issuing a ticket for the violation."
When an officer abandons his or her initial purpose, the officer has for all intents and purposes initiated a new seizure with a new purpose; one which requires its own reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment. This new seizure cannot piggy-back on the reasonableness of the original seizure unless some new reasonable suspicion or probable cause *1252arises to justify the seizure's new purpose. Linze ,
In Linze , the Idaho Supreme Court emphasized the reasoning from Rodriguez that, when a drug-dog sniff occurs contemporaneously with a traffic stop, the pertinent inquiry is not when the drug-dog sniff occurs or how expeditiously the officers conduct the traffic-based inquiries, but whether conducting the drug-dog sniff prolongs or adds time to the stop. Linze ,
If the completion of the mission of the traffic stop is minimally extended in order to conduct the drug-dog sniff, it is unconstitutional. Thus, even if the completion of the mission of the stop is extended by a mere matter of seconds, such a de minimus extension in order to conduct a drug-dog sniff unconstitutionally prolongs the completion of the mission of the traffic stop.
As the district court ruled, the officers impermissibly detoured from the traffic stop. The audio and video recordings reflect that by the time Killeen and McGraw were removed from the vehicle, Officer One had obtained all the necessary information from dispatch and could have written the citation. Yet, instead of issuing the citation, Officer One decided to interrupt the traffic stop to conduct a drug-dog sniff. Officer One placed the citation pad on the hood of the car. Officer Two asked Officer One what the citation was for and once told, Officer Two stated he would look up the code for the violation. Officer One remained where he was, standing between his vehicle and Killeen's. Officer Two picked up the citation pad, walked behind Officer One's vehicle, turned around, went back to the driver's side door of Officer One's vehicle, and opened the door briefly. Then, Officer Two walked behind Officer One's vehicle and positioned himself where he could observe both Killeen and McGraw on the curb and Killeen's vehicle. In the meantime, Officer One waited until Officer Two had positioned himself before turning to retrieve the drug dog. Officer Two then waited until Officer One had taken the drug dog out of the car before beginning to write the citation, approximately forty seconds after receiving the citation book. The district court determined that Officer Two was paying attention to Officer One, "ostensibly" writing the citation, and was intermittently doing so at best.
The district court determined these actions impermissibly prolonged the stop. The record reflects that the actions of the two officers that were focused on Officer One conducting the drug-dog sniff, i.e. , the transfer and delay in the writing and issuing of the citation, delayed the issuance of the citation. As explained in Rodriguez and Linze , officers cannot delay the issuance of a citation in an effort to extend the stop for a drug-dog sniff.
Because the officers' actions taken to pursue the independent investigation for contraband without reasonable suspicion unreasonably prolonged the traffic stop, the seizure became violative of McGraw's and Killeen's Fourth Amendment rights. Thus, any evidence produced after the officers ceased diligently pursuing the traffic stop and detoured to investigate for drugs should be suppressed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Brian MCGRAW, Defendant-Respondent. State of Idaho, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Lacey Killeen, Defendant-Respondent.
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published