State v. Brown
State v. Brown
Opinion of the Court
*772The state appeals from a trial court order suppressing evidence acquired by a sheriff's deputy after the deputy stopped defendant. On appeal, the state contends that the trial court erred when it concluded that the deputy lacked reasonable suspicion that defendant had committed a crime. For the reasons that follow, we reverse and remand.
I. STANDARD OF REVIEW
"We review a trial court's [ruling on] a motion to suppress for legal error." State v. Fuller ,
II. HISTORICAL AND PROCEDURAL FACTS
At 12:48 a.m., Deputy Waterbury responded to a report from dispatch. A named caller *570had reported a car prowl near a house on Southwest Alexander Street in Aloha, Oregon. Waterbury learned from the dispatcher that a caller had seen a man in her vehicle "going through things." The caller described the suspect as a "white male in [his] 30s with long brown hair, and a beard." The caller also reported that the suspect was wearing a red hat and shorts. Dispatch advised Waterbury that the caller had seen the suspect walk away from her car and toward a vehicle, and that the vehicle then "took off."
Three minutes later, at 12:51 a.m., as Waterbury drove toward the location of the car prowl, he saw defendant just around the corner from the caller's address. Defendant was approximately a block away from the location of the car prowl and was the only person Waterbury saw on the street at that time. Waterbury pulled over, turned off his headlights, and walked over to defendant, who was smoking a *773cigarette next to a parked car. Waterbury testified that he believed that defendant matched the caller's description of the car prowler: "He was white, approximately 30s, beard, and long brown hair." Waterbury did not recall whether defendant was wearing a hat at the time of the stop and did not testify regarding whether defendant was wearing shorts.
After approaching defendant, Waterbury identified himself and asked defendant "what he was doing there." Defendant responded that he was "just relaxing, having a smoke." After further conversation, Waterbury asked defendant for his identification. After defendant gave the identification to Waterbury, defendant asked Waterbury what "this was all about," and Waterbury told defendant that he matched the description of a suspect who had broken into a car.
After some additional conversation between defendant and Waterbury, defendant said "he wanted to be honest," and told Waterbury that he "went into someone's car" that night. Subsequently, defendant was arrested and charged with, among other offenses, one count of unlawful entry into a motor vehicle, ORS 164.272.
Before trial, defendant moved to suppress evidence, relying on Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, arguing that he had been unlawfully seized by Waterbury.
III. ANALYSIS
Under Article I, section 9, a "stop" is "the kind of seizure of a person that is a temporary detention for investigatory purposes." Maciel-Figueroa ,
"For police officers to make a stop, they must reasonably suspect-based on specific and articulable facts-that the person committed a specific crime or type of crime or was about to commit a specific crime or type of crime. For a court to determine that an investigative stop was lawful under Article I, section 9, the court (1) must find that the officers actually suspected that the stopped person had committed a specific crime or type of crime, or was about to commit a specific crime or type of crime, and (2) must conclude, based on the record, that the officers' subjective belief-their suspicion-was objectively reasonable under the totality of the circumstances existing at the time of the stop."
On appeal, neither party disputes the trial court's determination that a stop occurred *571when Waterbury asked defendant for his identification, stated that defendant matched the description of a person who had committed a crime, and stated that he was investigating that crime. Nor does either party dispute the trial court's finding that, at the time of the stop in this case, Waterbury had a subjective belief that defendant had committed a specific crime-viz. , unlawful entry into a motor vehicle. The sole issue on which the parties disagree relates to the trial court's conclusion that Waterbury's suspicion that defendant had committed unlawful entry into a motor vehicle was not objectively reasonable under the totality of the circumstances existing at the time of the stop.
" '[T]he established standard for reasonable suspicion supporting an investigatory stop of a defendant is met when an officer can point to specific and articulable facts that give rise to a reasonable inference that the defendant committed or was about to commit a specific crime or type *775of crime.' " Fuller ,
In analyzing this issue, two cases cited by the parties are particularly instructive: State v. Blackstone ,
In Blackstone , at around 1:40 a.m., an officer saw two men on Coburg Road in Eugene, Oregon, carrying pillowcases that appeared to be full of objects.
Thirty minutes later, at 2:14 a.m., different officers saw the defendant riding a bicycle down Elysium Street toward Coburg Road "directly toward their patrol car," which was parked about a block away from where the suspects were seen.
The defendant subsequently moved to suppress the evidence, arguing, among other points, that the officer did not have reasonable suspicion to stop him for burglary.
On appeal, we noted that "[p]utting on evidence that defendant is a white male, who may or may not have matched the age range of the suspect, and who may or may not have been wearing a dark jacket or hoodie, is insufficient to establish objective reasonable suspicion that defendant had committed burglary."
"First, * * * [the officer] had heard only a minimal physical description of the * * *
*572young male over the radio, and defendant matched even that description only 'vaguely' and 'from a distance.' Second, it was apparent to [the officer] that defendant did not match the * * * young male's overall description in several regards. He was not carrying a pillowcase or anything suspicious. He was alone, not with another young white male. He was on a bicycle, not on foot. Third, [the officer] did not know whether anyone had committed a crime. No one had witnessed or reported a burglary. While [the original officer] may have viewed the two young males' conduct as suspicious, the police's uncertainty whether any crime had actually been committed is part of the totality of circumstances as far as the likelihood that anyone, let alone defendant, had committed a burglary. Fourth, defendant rode his bicycle directly toward a police car with two officers sitting inside it. That is the exact opposite of the behavior of the two young males-sprinting away at the sight of a police car-and facially inconsistent with a desire to evade contact with the police."
Additionally, we explained that the fact "that police encountered defendant only a block from where [the original officer] had seen the two young males certainly has some relevance, given the existence of the perimeter," but that *777"mere proximity to a public sidewalk where someone suspicious was seen running a half hour earlier is not enough to detain citizens at large," and observed that "Coburg Road is a sizable road with businesses up and down it."
Conversely, in Nguyen , around 2:51 a.m., a caller telephoned police to report a "car prowl" in progress at an apartment complex on 180th Avenue in Aloha, Oregon, describing the suspects as "two 20- to 25-year-old males with dark hair, and wearing dark clothing."
At trial, the defendant moved to suppress the evidence that was obtained as a result of the stop, arguing that the officer "did not have reasonable suspicion for the stop."
"[T]here were numerous apartments and homes in the neighborhood. The Court finds it was dark on the evening in question. The Court finds [the officer] did not get a good look at the vehicle's occupants. The Court finds [the officer] based his stop on the description of two young males, 20-25, with dark hair and dark clothes. However, the Court finds [the officer] could not have been able to tell whether the occupants were wearing dark clothing or whether they were male or female. The Court finds that the startled appearance of the suspects was not unusual under the *573circumstances. The Court finds the suspects were the only individuals on the road at that time."
The state appealed, and we reversed and remanded, concluding "the standard for reasonable suspicion was satisfied."
"[the officer] knew that criminal activity was occurring when he was notified that a named citizen informant had reported a car prowl. He knew that the witness had given a description of the suspects and indicated that they were heading across the apartment parking lot toward SW 180th Avenue. [The officer] arrived two minutes later at the location of the reported car break-in and saw two persons in a car on 180th Avenue across from the parking lot. This was a residential neighborhood, and it was around 3:00 a.m. [The officer] stated that there were no other persons or vehicles on the road. As he arrived at the location, the headlights of a car had just been turned on, and the car was leaving the scene. When [the officer] began following defendant's vehicle and illuminated his patrol car's headlights, the occupants of the suspect vehicle appeared startled, and the driver of the vehicle, defendant, made an unusually slow turn."
Turning to the instant case, considering the totality of the circumstances existing at the time of the stop, we conclude that Waterbury's suspicion that defendant *779had committed unlawful entry into a motor vehicle was objectively reasonable. Four considerations lead us to that conclusion.
First, with regard to physical appearance, much of defendant's appearance matched the reported physical characteristics of the suspect: defendant was a white male, approximately in his 30s, with a beard and long brown hair. Defendant contends that this case is similar to Blackstone , but in this case, because the caller identified the suspect's hair color and hair style, the description of the suspect was less "generic" than the description of the suspect in Blackstone.
*780Second, unlike in Blackstone , where police had "uncertainty whether any crime had actually been committed,"
Third, Waterbury spotted defendant three minutes after Waterbury was dispatched, around the corner from where the car prowl had occurred, approximately one block away. As noted in Blackstone , "encountering someone a few blocks from a crime scene a few minutes after a crime occurred is the type of proximity fact that is inherently significant."
Fourth, when defendant was stopped it was 12:51 a.m.-which, as noted above, was just three minutes after Waterbury was dispatched-and defendant was the only person Waterbury saw in the area of the reported crime. While it is "not unlawful to be out late at night," those facts are relevant to our analysis, and support the conclusion that Waterbury's suspicion was objectively reasonable.
In light of all of those considerations, we conclude that Waterbury's suspicion that defendant had committed unlawful entry into a motor vehicle was objectively reasonable under the totality of the circumstances existing at the time of the stop. Consequently, we reverse and remand.
Reversed and remanded.
Article I, section 9, provides, in part:
"No law shall violate the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable search, or seizure * * *."
Although Richards analyzed reasonable suspicion under the statutes authorizing criminal investigative stops, ORS 131.615 and ORS 131.605,
Defendant also contends that Waterbury's suspicion was not objectively reasonable because "defendant's demeanor was at odds with the behavior expected of a suspect who just committed a crime": He "did not run away or attempt to evade Waterbury." Although we agree that a defendant's "suspicious behavior * * * [is an] appropriate factor[ ] to consider along with other evidence" in evaluating whether an officer's suspicion is objectively reasonable, State v. Worthington ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Oregon v. Lucas Craig BROWN, Defendant-Respondent.
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published