State v. Tapia
State v. Tapia
Opinion
{1} In this case we address an issue of first impression: whether evidence of non-violent crimes committed in the presence of a police officer after an unconstitutional traffic stop must be suppressed under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution (Fourth Amendment) and Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution ( Article II, Section 10 ). Defendant Edward Tapia, Sr. entered a conditional plea of guilty to one count of forgery, for signing his brother's name to a traffic citation charging failure to wear a seat belt in a motor vehicle, and reserved his right to appeal.
See
State v. Tapia
,
I. Facts and Procedure
{2} Because Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea, there was no trial. Therefore, the facts are taken from the suppression hearing, the findings of fact and conclusions of law entered by the district court, and the plea hearing. On August 8, 2012, Defendant and his companions were traveling westbound on U.S. Highway 64 toward Farmington, in San Juan County. Defendant was a passenger in the back seat of the car. New Mexico State Police Officer Tayna Benally stopped the car because it was going forty miles per hour in a fifty-five-mile-per-hour zone and because she was unable to read the license plate. After contacting the driver, Benally noticed Defendant was not wearing a seat belt. When asked about this, Defendant told Benally he was wearing a lap belt. Benally asked him to lift his shirt so she could verify he was wearing a lap belt. Defendant complied and lifted his shirt, and Benally observed he was not wearing a lap belt. At this point, Benally asked Defendant for his driver's license. Defendant said he didn't have any identification. Benally then asked Defendant to write down his name, date of birth, and social security number. He wrote down "Robert Tapia DOB 03/22/1968" and said he did not know his social security number.
{3} Benally contacted San Juan County Dispatch and asked for a description of Robert Tapia. The description given was inconsistent with Benally's observations of *335 Defendant's appearance. Despite the inconsistencies, Benally issued a "no seat belt" citation for Robert Tapia, and Defendant signed the citation as Robert Tapia.
{4} While Benally was dealing with Defendant, another officer at the scene spoke with a second male passenger. The second passenger informed the second officer that Defendant's real name was Edward Tapia. The second officer had Defendant exit the car and confirm his name. Defendant said his name was Robert Tapia but then restated his birth date as March 22, 1974. The second officer informed Benally of what the second passenger had told him, and Benally then arrested Defendant for concealing identity. Later, at the jail, Defendant's real identity was confirmed as Edward Tapia. His birth date and social security number were also confirmed, and Benally discovered there was an outstanding warrant for Defendant's arrest for failing to appear at the San Juan Magistrate Court in Aztec, New Mexico.
{5} Defendant was charged with forgery, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-16-10(A) (2006) ; concealing identity, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 30-22-3 (1963) ; and seat belt violation, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 66-7-372(A) (2001).
{6} Defendant filed in the Eleventh Judicial District Court a motion to suppress all evidence obtained by Benally, challenging the constitutionality of the traffic stop. The district court heard the motion to suppress, held that the traffic stop was unlawful because the driver had made no moving violations and the license plate was concededly visible to the officer, and suppressed the evidence of the seat belt violation. However, the evidence of concealing identity and forgery was not suppressed. The district court found that those crimes "had not yet been committed at the time of the stop," that "[e]vidence of those crimes did not exist at the time of the stop," and concluded that "an unlawful stop does not justify the commission of new crimes."
{7} Defendant entered a conditional guilty plea to the forgery charge, admitted to two prior offenses for habitual sentencing purposes, and reserved the right to appeal the suppression issue as to both forgery and concealing identity. The district court accepted the plea and sentenced Defendant to eighteen months in the Department of Corrections, with all but forty-five days of the sentence suspended in favor of unsupervised probation. Pursuant to the plea, the Defendant appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeals.
{8} The Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of the district court and held that "the commission of a non-violent, identity-related offense in response to unconstitutional police conduct does not automatically purge the taint of the unlawful police conduct under federal law."
Tapia
,
{9} The State petitioned for certiorari to review the issue of whether a new crime exception to the exclusionary rule, which this Court has previously recognized for violent crimes, also applies to non-violent, identity-related crimes. See N.M. Const. art. VI, § 3 ; NMSA 1978, § 34-5-14 (1972) ; Rule 12-502. We granted certiorari under Rule 12-502(C)(2)(d)(iii) as this case presents a significant constitutional question.
II. Standard of Review
{10} "In reviewing a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress, we observe the distinction between factual determinations which are subject to a substantial evidence standard of review and application of law to the facts [,] which is subject to de novo review."
State v. Nieto
,
III. Discussion
{11} The State argues that the new crime exception to the exclusionary rule does not make a categorical distinction between violent and non-violent crimes and that the potential deterrence of unlawful searches and seizure by the State is outweighed by the cost of excluding evidence of identity crimes. Defendant asks this Court to affirm the Court of Appeals ruling that the crimes of concealing identity and forgery should have been suppressed under the Fourth Amendment and asks alternatively for suppression under Article II, Section 10.
{12} Under the interstitial approach adopted in
State v. Gomez
,
A. Attenuation Doctrine and the New Crime Exception
{13} The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by police.
Herring v. United States
,
{14} The United States Supreme Court has thus recognized three exceptions to the exclusionary rule involving the causal relationship between the unconstitutional act and the discovery of evidence.
First, the independent source doctrine allows trial courts to admit evidence obtained in an unlawful search if officers independently acquired it from a separate, independent source. Second, the inevitable discovery doctrine allows for the admission of evidence that would have been discovered even without the unconstitutional source. Third ... is the attenuation doctrine: Evidence is admissible when the connection between unconstitutional police conduct and the evidence is remote or has been interrupted by some intervening circumstance, so that the interest protected by the constitutional guarantee that has been violated would not be served by suppression of the evidence obtained.
*337
{15} Under the attenuation doctrine, the government can admit evidence when "the relationship between the unlawful search or seizure and the challenged evidence becomes sufficiently weak to dissipate any taint resulting from the original illegality."
United States v. Smith
,
{16} "It was [the attenuation doctrine] that spawned the new crime exception to the exclusionary rule." Christopher J. Dunne,
State v. Brocuglio: The Supreme Court of Connecticut's Modification of the New Crime Exception to the Exclusionary Rule
, 23 QLR 853, 860 (2004). The new crime exception was first articulated by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in
United States v. Bailey
,
{17} Whether the new crime exception is part of the attenuation doctrine or a separate exception to the exclusionary rule is unclear. 1 McCormick on Evidence § 180, at 972-73 (Kenneth S. Broun ed., 7th ed. 2013) ("Some courts appear to regard the doctrine as simply a specialized application of the attenuation of taint doctrine, under which intervening voluntary criminal conduct usually and perhaps inevitably attenuates the taint of illegality preceding that conduct. ... Other courts appear to regard the doctrine as a separate exception to exclusionary requirements, based on considerations distinguishable from those supporting the attenuation of taint doctrine." (footnotes omitted) ). 1
{18} The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the new crime exception in
United States v. Waupekenay
,
{19}
Waupekenay
involved a defendant reacting violently toward police officers, and many states, including New Mexico, have adopted the new crime exception to the exclusionary rule in such cases.
{20} Cases where defendants committed an identity-related crime in the presence of police after an unlawful search or seizure are much less common but do exist. Two federal appellate courts have ruled that identity-related crimes committed in the presence of officers after an illegal seizure were not protected under the Fourth Amendment.
See
*338
United States v. Pryor
,
{21} Some state courts have also held that identity crimes committed after a Fourth Amendment violation fall under the new crime exception to the exclusionary rule.
See, e.g.
,
People v. Diamond
,
{22} Defendant asks us to limit the application of the attenuation for new crimes to only those cases where an individual endangers the safety of police or the public. Defendant points out that in New Mexico the early cases holding new crimes that were sufficiently attenuated from the initial illegality involved assaults and threats against officers during unlawful searches and seizures.
See, e.g.
,
State v. Chamberlain
,
{23} The State contends the Court of Appeals applied the correct analysis to the facts but came to the wrong conclusion in reversing the district court. According to the State, the Court of Appeals erred "in weighing the potential for deterrence too greatly and discounting the societal cost of excluding evidence of identity crimes." The State submits that under federal law there should always be a balancing of the costs and benefits of exclusion and that the Court of Appeals improperly discounted the costs of excluding evidence of non-violent, identity-related crimes. The State also suggests that non-violent crimes can be as socially harmful as violent crimes and that we should look to the penalty for an offense as it " 'reveals the legislature's judgment about the offense's severity.' " (quoting
Lewis v. United States
,
{24} By contrast, Defendant directs this Court to three cases from other jurisdictions that have declined to extend the new crime exception to non-violent acts by a defendant:
People v. Brown
,
*339
{25} With regard to
Suppah
, the Oregon Supreme Court has reversed the Oregon Court of Appeals in
Suppah I
since Defendant filed his brief.
See
Suppah II
,
{26} A month after the traffic stop, the defendant called the police and told them he had lied about his name. Id. As a result, the state dismissed the charges against the defendant's friend and charged the defendant with driving while suspended and giving false information to a police officer. Id. Before trial, the defendant moved to suppress the false statements he made to police when he was stopped and the statements he made a month afterward. Id. at 1110-11. The trial court denied the motion to suppress, concluding that the defendant's decision to give the deputy a false name and his decision to come forward with truthful information a month later were not the product of the unlawful stop. Id. After a bench trial, the court found the defendant guilty of giving false information to a police officer but not guilty of driving while suspended. Id.
{27} On initial appeal, the Oregon Court of Appeals agreed with the defendant that the evidence should have been suppressed and reversed the trial court's judgment.
Suppah I
,
{28} Second, Defendant relies on the holding in
Badessa
where the New Jersey Supreme Court found that evidence gathered by the police after an unconstitutional traffic stop should have been excluded in a prosecution for refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test.
See
{29} The New Jersey Supreme Court disagreed, stating:
Under the present circumstances, we cannot subscribe to the [s]tate's position that a breathalyzer refusal and DWI are distinct *340 for purposes of an exclusionary rule analysis. ... The facts necessary to prosecute those two offenses are inextricably intertwined. After all, to secure a refusal conviction, the [s]tate must prove that the arresting officer had probable cause to believe that the person had been driving while under the influence and was placed under arrest for DWI."
{30} The New Jersey refusal statute's dual requirements of probable cause and an arrest for DWI were critical to the refusal analysis and thus the outcome of the case. In other words, the New Jersey statute rendered the crime of refusing a breath test "inextricably intertwined" with a DWI arrest and compelled a conclusion that refusal could not be attenuated from an initial stop for DWI.
{31} No such specific statutory treatment applies to the crimes with which Defendant was charged in this case. In New Mexico, concealing identity and forgery may be distinct crimes from, and not conditioned upon, conduct giving rise to an initial stop.
See
State v. Ruffins
,
{32} Finally,
People v. Brown
is no more persuasive. In
People v. Brown
, a police officer unlawfully detained Brown simply because he was standing in front of a closed business.
{33} We decline to follow the reasoning in
People v. Brown,
{34} The parties do not dispute the district court's finding that Benally lacked reasonable suspicion to initiate the traffic stop. The question before this Court is: do the Brown v. Illinois factors suggest Defendant's conduct was sufficiently attenuated between the initial stop and Defendant's false identification to render the exclusionary rule inapplicable to the new evidence. This is an issue of first impression before the Court.
{35} We now apply the three general attenuation factors from Brown v. Illinois *341 to assess the attenuation in this case between the illegal police conduct and the discovery of evidence. The first consideration requires that we review the lapsed time between the illegality and the acquisition of the evidence, which in this case favors suppression, as it was only a short time between the traffic stop and Defendant's false identification. A little more time passed before Defendant signed the traffic citation containing his brother's identifiers, but it was still only minutes.
{36} The second consideration requires that we look to any intervening circumstances that serve to attenuate the illegal detention from the discovery of the evidence. An intervening circumstance is one that breaks the relationship between the illegal conduct and the evidence obtained. Various courts have concluded a defendant's independent criminal act may itself constitute an intervening circumstance sufficient to purge the taint of the initial illegality.
United States v. King
,
{37} Here, Defendant's misrepresentation of his identity was such an intervening circumstance. Although the interaction between the police and Defendant came about initially as a result of the unlawful seizure, the Defendant's response to Officer Benally was not a natural or predictable progression from the unlawful seizure but rather an unprompted act of his own free will.
{38} The third consideration requires that we assess the purpose and flagrancy of the police misconduct. Nothing in the record indicates that Benally initiated the traffic stop for the specific purpose of investigating Defendant or for some other merely pretextual reason. And nothing indicates Benally approached and addressed Defendant for arbitrary reasons or to provoke additional wrongdoing; rather, she addressed Defendant based on her observation that he was not wearing a seat belt. Benally had probable cause to believe that Defendant was violating the law; and under conditions of a lawful traffic stop, her course of conduct thereafter would not have been unlawful. This third consideration tips the balance away from suppression because nothing suggests that admission of the evidence will embolden police to engage in unconstitutional traffic stops. Benally's behavior cannot reasonably be viewed as flagrant misconduct of a police officer searching for evidence. Accordingly, the Fourth Amendment analysis does not require excluding evidence of concealing identity because it was free of the taint of the unlawful seizure.
B. State Constitutional Grounds
{39} Because we conclude that the Fourth Amendment does not offer Defendant protection here, we must address his challenge under Article II, Section 10.
See
Gomez
,
1. Preservation of State Constitutional Issue
{40} Because the Court of Appeals found the crimes of concealing identity and
*342
forgery should have been suppressed under the Fourth Amendment, it did not address Defendant's challenge under Article II, Section 10. Therefore, as an initial matter, we must determine whether Defendant properly preserved his argument under the New Mexico Constitution for appellate review.
See
State v. Ketelson
,
{41} Defendant explicitly cited Article II, Section 10 in his motion to suppress. However, in his motion to suppress, Defendant only discussed the facts leading up to the traffic stop to argue the officer lacked reasonable suspicion. Very few facts regarding the crimes of concealing identity and forgery were developed in the motion hearing. It is in the findings of fact and conclusions of law that the district court states, "[I]t was during the issuance of the citation that the charged crimes of concealing identity and forgery are alleged to have occurred." The district court concluded that an unlawful stop does not justify the commission of new crimes and that the evidence of the forgery and concealing identity was admissible at trial.
{42} We find that despite this marginal record, the necessary factual basis was still developed and the district court's ruling was fairly invoked. Therefore, Defendant's Article II, Section 10 challenge was adequately preserved. We next determine whether Article II, Section 10 affords Defendant greater protection than the Fourth Amendment and requires suppression of the evidence of the crimes of concealing identity and forgery committed after an unlawful traffic stop.
2. Article II, Section 10
{43} Article II, Section 10 provides that "[t]he people shall be secure in their persons, papers, homes and effects, from unreasonable searches and seizures...." N.M. Const. art. II, § 10. Similar to the Fourth Amendment, this clause embodies "the fundamental notion that every person in this state is entitled to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusions."
State v. Gutierrez
,
{44} Defendant argues that upholding the district court ruling would create a bright-line, per se standard whereby the commission of non-violent identity offenses would always be sufficient to purge the taint of an unconstitutional seizure and would thus contradict our preference to consider the facts of each case. Defendant also argues that unlike the federal exclusionary rule, which only applies "where its deterrence benefits outweigh its substantial social costs,"
Pennsylvania Bd. of Prob. & Parole v. Scott
,
{45} The State argues that the Court of Appeals properly applied the federal analysis but neglected to balance the costs and benefits *343 of exclusion and that as a result, the Court of Appeals drew a categorical distinction between violent and non-violent new crimes which will lead to a systematic under-valuation of the societal costs of excluding evidence of crimes such as forgery or giving a false identity. The State suggests that this Court adopt an appropriate balancing test for evaluating attenuation under the state Constitution.
{46} While we have repeatedly expressed that Article II, Section 10 provides broader protection of individual privacy than the Fourth Amendment, the key inquiry is still one of reasonableness, which "depends on the balance between the public interest and the individual's interest in freedom from police intrusion upon personal liberty."
Ketelson
,
{47} Application of the three-part federal attenuation analysis comports with our preference to assess the reasonableness of law enforcement by considering the totality of the circumstances of each case.
See
State v. Leyva
,
{48} While Officer Benally's decision to initiate the stop was mistaken, her conduct thereafter was lawful. Officer Benally reasonably requested Defendant's identification after observing the seat belt violation. We therefore conclude that the benefits of deterrence in this case are not outweighed by the cost of excluding the evidence of Defendant's crimes. Though a passenger in an automobile has a right to be free of unreasonable seizure by the government, the passenger's unprovoked and willful criminal acts after an unreasonable traffic stop cannot be sanctioned. The violation of Defendant's Fourth Amendment or Article II, Section 10 rights does not confer upon him a license to commit new crimes, whether they be physical resistance or more passive forms of resistance to government authority.
See
Waupekenay
,
{49} Finally, Defendant does not present any basis for us to conclude that this case involves structural differences between the federal and state governments other than the differences already articulated between the Fourth Amendment and Article II, Section 10. However, our finding that the new crimes sufficiently purged the taint of the primary illegality removed those crimes from the greater protection that New Mexico law provides from unreasonable searches and seizures involving automobiles.
IV. CONCLUSION
{50} We hold that the new crime exception to the exclusionary rule may apply to both violent and non-violent crimes committed in response to unlawful police action. Defendant's attempts to conceal his identity after the unlawful traffic stop sufficiently purged the taint of the initial illegality so as to render the exclusionary rule inapplicable under both the Fourth Amendment and Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution. The evidence of the seat belt violation obtained as a direct result of the unlawful stop was correctly suppressed. Accordingly, we reverse the Court of Appeals and reinstate Defendant's conviction.
{51} IT IS SO ORDERED.
WE CONCUR:
JUDITH K. NAKAMURA, Chief Justice
EDWARD L. CHÁVEZ, Justice
CHARLES W. DANIELS, Justice
BARBARA J. VIGIL, Justice
The State asserts that "[t]here is no categorical or bright-line [new crime] exception."
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Edward James TAPIA, Sr., Defendant-Respondent.
- Cited By
- 20 cases
- Status
- Published