State v. Rosales
State v. Rosales
Opinion of the Court
*114*764Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, ORS 475.752, which the court entered following defendant's conditional guilty plea. The issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred when it denied defendant's motion to suppress evidence that police officers obtained during a traffic stop. On appeal, defendant concedes that the vehicle she was riding in was lawfully stopped. However, defendant argues that she was unlawfully seized when an officer subsequently conducted a dog sniff that extended the stop. Defendant further contends that the trial court should have suppressed evidence found as a result of the dog sniff because police obtained it as a result of the unlawful seizure. We agree with defendant that the dog sniff extended the detention of defendant in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.
We state the facts consistently with the trial court's express findings and those implicit in its ruling, which the record supports. State v. Culley ,
Ereth walked Buddy around the car, in which defendant remained seated. Buddy alerted when Ereth was near the passenger door, which led Ereth to believe that controlled substances were (or recently had been) in the car. Ereth asked the driver to step out of the car, patted him down, then had him sit on the curb. Ereth repeated that process with defendant. Aside from perhaps saying hello, that was the first time Ereth and defendant exchanged words.
*765Ereth then searched the car, found defendant's purse on the floorboard, and found controlled substances inside the purse.
Defendant moved to suppress the evidence found in her purse, as well as any derivative evidence, arguing that it was the fruit of an unlawful seizure. In her written suppression motion, defendant asserted that an officer had detained her beyond "the scope of the initial stop without reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed." Defendant cited both Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution and the Fourth Amendment in support of that argument. Defendant elaborated on her argument at the suppression hearing, asserting both that the dog sniff itself "constituted a stop" and that it "extended the stop" that had already occurred. The trial court denied the suppression motion. It rejected defendant's argument that the dog sniff constituted a seizure of defendant, explaining that the sniff would not have led defendant to believe that she was not free to leave. And, although the court acknowledged that McGriff stopped processing the traffic citation for about 30 seconds when he covered Ereth during the dog sniff, it ruled that the delay was not "significant." Finally, the court concluded that Ereth had probable cause to search the car once the dog alerted. Accordingly, the court denied defendant's *115suppression motion. As noted, defendant executed a conditional guilty plea, reserving the right to challenge the court's denial of her suppression motion.
On appeal, defendant first contends that the dog sniff itself constituted a seizure of her person that violated Article I, section 9, because it would have led defendant to believe that she was under investigation for a crime and, therefore, not free to leave. In response, the state argues that defendant was not subject to the type of coercion or restraint of liberty that can give rise to a seizure.
The parties' arguments implicate fundamental Article I, section 9, principles. Under Article I, section 9, only *766some police-individual encounters constitute seizures that require justification to pass constitutional muster. State v. Backstrand ,
Here, defendant argues that she was seized through a show of authority because the dog sniff amounted to an accusation that she-as a passenger in a vehicle subject to the sniff-possessed illegal drugs. That argument does not survive State v. Sexton ,
Defendant seeks to distinguish Sexton on the ground that, in this case-unlike in Sexton -the drug dog walked in front of the passenger door of the car in which she was sitting. Accordingly, defendant contends, Ereth and Buddy physically restrained her liberty because they must have temporarily blocked the passenger door "at some point." But the record does not reflect that either the officer or the dog blocked the passenger door more than momentarily. We therefore do not view the circumstances here as meaningfully different from those present in Sexton . Nor are we persuaded by defendant's argument that the dog sniff of the car in which defendant was a passenger was a seizure because it conveyed the message that she was under investigation for criminal activity. Words or conduct that suggest officers suspect possible criminal activity are not enough, standing alone, to constitute a seizure. State v. Anderson ,
We turn to defendant's argument under the Fourth Amendment, in which she contends that the officers unconstitutionally extended the traffic stop when McGriff stopped processing the citation to cover Ereth while he walked Buddy around the car.
*116The state contends that defendant did not preserve that argument for appeal. In that regard, the state observes that defendant did not mention the Fourth Amendment at the suppression hearing and it asserts that defendant did not then raise the same unlawful-extension argument that she makes on appeal. Defendant responds that the policies underlying the preservation rule were served in this case because (1) she raised the unlawful-extension argument in her written suppression motion by arguing that her detention "exceeded the scope of the initial stop without reasonable suspicion," (2) the state litigated the issue and developed the record by, for example, asking the officers whether there was an "unavoidable lull," and (3) the trial court ruled on defendant's Fourth Amendment argument by ruling that McGriff's covering of Ereth created no "significant" delay.
Although the question is close, we agree with defendant that her Fourth Amendment argument is adequately preserved for appeal because she alerted the trial court and the state to her contention that the stop was impermissibly extended when McGriff stopped processing the citation during the dog sniff. See generally State v. Parkins ,
Defendant also has the stronger argument on the merits. "Unlike our analysis of traffic stops under Article I, *769section 9, under the Fourth Amendment, a police officer 'effectively seizes everyone in the vehicle, the driver and all passengers' for the duration of a traffic stop." State v. Evans ,
Because the mission of a traffic stop may involve determining whether to issue a ticket, making ordinary inquiries incident to the stop, and taking certain precautions to ensure officer safety, the stop may last long enough to allow an officer to engage in those activities.
In this case, that question is easily answered. It is undisputed that McGriff stopped processing the traffic violation for a measurable amount of time to provide cover while Ereth walked Buddy around the car in which defendant was sitting. Thus, the dog sniff extended the duration *770of the traffic stop which, under the Fourth Amendment, constituted a seizure of defendant. The state does not con-tend that the extension of the stop was justified by reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, and we conclude that the officers' extended seizure of defendant violated the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, the state has not argued that discovery of the pertinent evidence was so attenuated from the unlawful police conduct that the evidence could be admitted despite that illegality. See State v. Bailey ,
Reversed and remanded.
In keeping with the "first things first" doctrine, we address defendant's Article I, section 9, argument before turning to her Fourth Amendment argument. See State v. Jones ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent v. Maressa Sierra Blake ROSALES
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published