State v. Ritz
State v. Ritz
Opinion of the Court
*662This case is before us on remand from the Supreme Court, which reversed our decision in State v. Ritz ,
When reviewing a denial of a motion to suppress, we are bound by the facts found by the trial court that are supported by evidence in the record. State v. Marshall ,
"At approximately 10:15 p.m., police received a dispatch report that a man and a woman were fighting in a driveway near a vehicle that had crashed into a ditch. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Detective McCourt of the Brookings Police Department arrived at the scene. Deputy Lorentz of the Curry County Sheriff's Office also arrived shortly after. Police observed a white truck in a ditch in close proximity to a driveway. A woman, Wilson-McCullough, was at the scene. Her statements to Lorentz established that she *663lived at the residence with defendant, who had driven the truck and had been drinking that day. Wilson-McCullough accompanied Lorentz up the driveway to the residence, a small trailer, to look for defendant. Wilson-McCullough opened the door, and Lorentz looked through the door. Lorentz could see the whole trailer through the door and did not see defendant. Lorentz heard what sounded like someone running through nearby bushes, but he could not locate anyone there, either."
"Spini returned to the trailer residence at 12:56 a.m. As he was pulling up, he saw defendant standing just outside the trailer, near the door. Seconds later, defendant went inside and closed the door. He briefly stuck his head out the door, then closed it again. Spini called out to defendant to ask him to come outside. At 1:05 a.m., Spini called Lorentz to report that he had seen defendant enter the residence. Lorentz returned to the scene at 1:12 a.m. At Spini's request, [three] Brookings police units also arrived to provide assistance."
"Lorentz and Spini decided that they needed to act quickly. Lorentz later testified that obtaining a telephonic warrant in Curry County takes approximately 45 minutes. Spini testified that he could have used his 'in-car computer' to prepare a warrant application at the scene. Nevertheless, he estimated that it would have taken 90 minutes to prepare the warrant application, and then slightly longer to actually obtain the warrant. The trial court found that testimony credible. Spini testified that he decided not to apply for a warrant because he was concerned about the loss of evidence due to the dissipation of alcohol in defendant's bloodstream; thus, he believed that an exigency existed such that no warrant was required. Lorentz also testified that they wanted to minimize the time that the Brookings officers were at the scene because those officers were out of their jurisdiction and needed to return to their normal duties.
*664"The trailer door was locked. Lorentz entered the trailer through a window, then opened the door for Spini. Defendant was in the bathroom. After some conversation, defendant agreed to come out of the bathroom. *** Spini arrested him at 1:33 a.m. *** Defendant made incriminating statements, and a breath test administered at 2:23 a.m. showed that defendant had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of 0.14 percent.
"Before trial, defendant moved to suppress evidence obtained after the warrantless entry into his home. He argued that the entry was unlawful, and that his statements and the BAC evidence were required to be suppressed because of the illegality. The state argued that the entry was lawful based on probable cause and exigent circumstances. The state also argued that the entry was justified because, when defendant retreated into the interior of his trailer, police were allowed to follow him inside because they were in 'hot pursuit.' "
The trial court agreed with the state and denied defendant's motion, concluding:
*400"The officers did have probable cause to believe that defendant had committed the offense of driving under the influence prior to entry into the trailer. Shortly before entry the officers had probable cause to believe that he was in the trailer and that evidence of DUII might be obtained by sample of blood or breath. They had reason to believe that the defendant saw them and heard them and was attempting to defeat an otherwise legal contact in a public place by retreating into the interior of the trailer.
"Exigent circumstances and hot pursuit both provide a valid basis for entry into the trailer without a warrant in this case. Additionally, the officers had safety concerns because the Brookings officers, who were providing back-up, would have to stay a much longer period of time to provide back-up in the event that a warrant was sought, leaving them unavailable to patrol in the city of Brookings, which is where they ordinarily work. This arrest occurred outside of the city of Brookings. Officer safety concerns compelled those Brookings officers to stay on scene until the arrest was effected, so this was an additional exigent circumstance."
*665On appeal, defendant assigns error to the denial of his motion to suppress, arguing that the warrantless entry violated his rights under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In Ritz I , we affirmed on the ground that the state had proven exigency by showing that the officers reasonably believed that defendant's BAC would have lost all evidentiary value if officers waited to obtain a warrant. 270 Or. App. of 98-99. In light of that conclusion, it was unnecessary to address the other justifications-hot pursuit and officer safety-cited by the trial court and the state.
The Supreme Court reversed and remanded our decision, reasoning that, "at the time that officers entered defendant's home, they had no reason to think that obtaining a warrant to enter the home would delay a consensual search for defendant's BAC evidence, because they had no reason to think that defendant would consent to such a search." Ritz II ,
Both Article I, section 9, and the Fourth Amendment protect persons against unreasonable searches by police. Under those provisions, a warrantless search is per se unreasonable unless the search falls within one of the "few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions" to the warrant requirement. Katz v. United States ,
On remand, the state contends that the officers' "hot pursuit" of defendant presented an exigent circumstance "because forestalling a suspect's escape presents an exigency."
Cases in which a defendant was inclined to "make a break" have involved either the defendant's attempt to openly flee from police or some other similar manifestation of an intent to escape from police. Compare
Past cases have also distinguished a defendant's intent to escape from police from an intent to merely remain in a house and not cooperate with police. See Peller ,
In light of our case law, we conclude that the record does not support an objectively reasonable belief on the officers' part that defendant intended to "make a break" from his trailer after the police arrived. By the time officers entered the trailer, they had observed defendant step inside his trailer upon spotting Spini's approaching police car, stick his head briefly out his door, and refuse to respond to officers' requests to come out. Officers also suspected, but could not confirm, that defendant had avoided them in the bushes when they visited the trailer two and one-half hours earlier. However, officers neither saw defendant try to openly flee nor heard defendant say anything suggesting that he was going to try to "make a break," as in Girard . Finally, the officers here had defendant's home surrounded, which makes it *668less reasonable to have believed that defendant might have tried to evade police by fleeing the home.
Reversed and remanded.
As noted, the trial court also cited "officer safety" concerns as a justification for the warrantless entry. On appeal, the state does not defend that rationale, and we conclude that it is unsupported by any evidence in the record that officers at the scene had a reasonable suspicion that defendant posed an "immediate threat of serious physical injury" to those present. State v. Jimenez ,
The state points out that the three Brookings officers would have had to leave the scene to return to Brookings before a warrant could have been obtained. Even assuming that that is true, nothing in the record provides a basis for inferring that the remaining two officers, Lorentz and Spini, would have been unable by themselves to monitor the entry and exit points of a small trailer.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.