State v. Leonard
State v. Leonard
Opinion of the Court
Appellant John Thomas Leonard challenges his check-forgery convictions based on evidence seized from his hotel room after police obtained his identifying information from hotel-registration records. Appellant argues that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress because the evidence against him is the fruit of an unlawful search of hotel-registration records. We affirm.
FACTS
On August 14, 2015, police officers requested a guest list from a Bloomington hotel's registration records. A clerk at the hotel's front desk provided the list and told the officers that appellant had recently checked into a room, provided a Pennsylvania identification card, and paid cash to use the room for six hours. Because the brief cash rental by an out-of-state guest aroused the officers' suspicions, they checked appellant's criminal history. They discovered that appellant had numerous arrests for drugs, firearms, and fraud.
The officers proceeded to appellant's room, knocked on the door, and identified themselves as police. Approximately 60 seconds elapsed, during which time the officers heard a toilet flush and papers shuffling. Then appellant answered the door and permitted the officers to enter, but immediately after allowing the officers into the room, he picked up a laptop, a cell phone, and a file folder that appeared to contain several checks. Appellant declined the officers' request to inspect those items. In the room, the officers observed a large amount of cash, two printers, and several envelopes. The officers then froze the scene and obtained a search warrant. In searching the room pursuant to the warrant, officers recovered several checks purporting to be paychecks from various hotels to "Spencer Alan Hill" at various addresses. Six of the checks indicated the same account number, but purported to be *55from different banks. The amounts for which the checks were payable totaled $2,521.22. Officers also recovered $5,338 in cash, and check-printing paper that had been loaded into a printer.
Appellant was charged with check forgery and offering a forged check. He moved to suppress the evidence seized from his hotel room. He argued that the warrantless search of the hotel's registration records was unjustified because the statutes that require hotel operators, under threat of criminal sanction, to maintain such records and make them "open to the inspection of all law enforcement,"
The district court denied appellant's suppression motion, reasoning that appellant lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information he gave to the hotel for its registration records. Appellant thereafter waived a jury trial and submitted the case to the district court for resolution on stipulated evidence under Minn. R. Crim. P. 26.01, subd. 4. The district court found appellant guilty of both counts and sentenced him to 17 months in prison.
This appeal followed.
ISSUE
Does a hotel guest have a reasonable expectation of privacy in identifying information conveyed to a hotel for its registration records?
ANALYSIS
When reviewing a pretrial order denying a motion to suppress evidence, appellate courts independently review the established facts and determine whether, as a matter of law, the district court erred in not suppressing the evidence. State v. Askerooth ,
The United States and Minnesota Constitutions protect against "unreasonable" searches. U.S. Const. amend. IV ; Minn. Const. art. I, § 10. A warrantless search is "presumptively unreasonable unless one of a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions applies." State v. Diede ,
Appellant frames this appeal principally as a challenge to the constitutionality of
The ordinance under review in Patel was similar to
Fourth Amendment rights are "personal rights" that may not be asserted vicariously. Rakas v. Illinois ,
In considering the reasonableness of a person's expectation of privacy, the Supreme Court has "drawn a line between what a person keeps to himself and what he shares with others." Carpenter v. United States , --- U.S. ----,
Here, appellant gave the hotel the basic identifying information that
Appellant resists this conclusion, arguing first that Miller is inapposite because it involved a different type of information subject to search (bank records) and a different process by which police obtained access (subpoena). But the third-party-disclosure principle articulated in Miller has a broader application than the facts of that case. It is based on the long-standing and unchallenged principle that "[w]hat a person knowingly exposes to the public ... is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection." Miller ,
Appellant argues that no such disclosure occurred here. He asserts that he did not voluntarily provide information, but was instead required to do so "without any opportunity for [him] to refuse while still renting a hotel room in Minnesota." This argument is unavailing. While Minnesota law required him to provide, and the hotel to collect, some of the information he disclosed-or else forfeit the desired accommodation-the Fourth Amendment concept of voluntary third-party disclosure does not depend on the gratuitous sharing of information. To the contrary, in Miller , the Supreme Court found the disclosure of certain financial information to be voluntary, as a means of retaining a bank account, despite legislation mandating banks to collect certain information from their depositors.
Finally, appellant argues that, even if the third-party-disclosure principle defeats his suppression argument under the Fourth Amendment, this court should hold that article I, section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution affords greater protection in this circumstance than the Fourth Amendment. We decline to so hold. Article I, section 10 should be interpreted more *58expansively than its "textually identical" federal counterpart only when there is "a principled basis to do so." State v. McMurray ,
We consider the analogous question of whether a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage that person leaves for pick up at the curb. The Supreme Court held in the negative, reasoning that doing so exposes the garbage to the public, much like the third-party disclosure in Smith , and therefore is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. California v. Greenwood ,
Moreover, this court's role is to correct errors; we make "new law" only if "there are no statutory or judicial precedents to follow." See State v. McCormick ,
In sum, appellant, in renting a hotel room, voluntarily provided the hotel with identifying information, some but not all of which the hotel was directed by Minnesota law to collect. Because appellant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the hotel records, police officers' acquisition of that information through a warrantless search of hotel-registration records (and conversation with the hotel clerk) did not implicate appellant's Fourth Amendment rights.
DECISION
The district court did not err by denying appellant's motion to suppress evidence seized from his hotel room because appellant voluntarily provided information to the hotel, which then provided its registration records to police officers.
Affirmed.
The ordinance stated "that hotel guest records 'shall be made available to any officer of the Los Angeles Police Department for inspection.' " Patel ,
The state insists that this issue is not properly before us because the record does not indicate whether the hotel shared appellant's information with the officers voluntarily or because
The statute requires a "person operating" a hotel to collect vehicle information and other guests' names and addresses,
Appellant argues for the first time on appeal that
Appellant points only to a generalized common-law right to privacy and the holding in State v. Licari ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Minnesota v. John Thomas LEONARD
- Status
- Published