State v. Vanhollebeke
State v. Vanhollebeke
Opinion
*317 ¶ 1 Justin Vanhollebeke drove his truck the wrong way down a one-way street. Not surprisingly, an officer stopped him. Vanhollebeke ignored the officer's command to stay in the vehicle, got out and locked the vehicle behind him, left a punched out ignition and apparent drug paraphernalia behind in plain view of the police, and had no key. The police asked Vanhollebeke for consent to search the vehicle. Vanhollebeke refused. A police officer then contacted the truck's owner, received the absent owner's consent and a key to search, and then returned to search the vehicle.
¶ 2 Vanhollebeke was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm found in the truck, and he challenged the legality of the vehicle search. The officer lacked a warrant, and the State relies instead on an exception to the warrant requirement: the owner's consent.
¶ 3 We hold that the present driver's refusal to consent to the search of his or her vehicle must generally be respected. But where, as here, circumstances like a punched *1276 out ignition and a driver with no key raise a significant question about whether the driver had any legitimate claim to the vehicle at all, the police may contact the absent owner and then get that owner's consent to search instead.
¶ 4 We therefore affirm the Court of Appeals.
FACTS
¶ 5 Sergeant Aaron Garza of the Othello Police Department observed Vanhollebeke's truck facing the wrong way on a one-way street at an intersection. Clerk's Papers (CP) at 34 (Finding of Fact (FF) 1.1); RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 11-12; (RP) (May 20, 2015) at 310-11. Garza pulled Vanhollebeke over. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 12; RP (May 20, 2015) at 311. Ignoring repeated commands to remain in his vehicle, Vanhollebeke finally exited from the truck and stated that he had locked himself out and did not have a key. CP at 34 (FF 1.2). Finding this behavior unusual, *318 Garza called for backup. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 13-15; RP (May 20, 2015) at 314-16. After the other officers arrived, dispatch advised that Vanhollebeke had a suspended license. CP at 35 (FF 1.4); RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 18. 1 Garza began writing a citation for driving while license suspended. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 22.
¶ 6 One of the other officers, Deputy Darryl Barnes, saw a glass pipe containing a white crystal substance on the truck's dashboard and noticed that the ignition had been punched out. CP at 35 (FF 1.5); RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 103, 106. The officers suspected that the truck might be stolen or contain controlled substances and asked Vanhollebeke for permission to search it. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 23, 28. Vanhollebeke refused. Id. at 28.
¶ 7 Garza then tried to reach the truck's registered owner, Bill Casteel. CP at 35 (FF 1.6); RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 28-29. Garza couldn't reach Casteel by phone, so Barnes drove to Casteel's home, about 20 miles away, instead. CP at 35 (FF 1.6); RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 30. Garza's police report states that Barnes went to Casteel's home seeking permission to search the vehicle; 2 it does not say anything about ascertaining whether the vehicle was stolen. CP at 20-21; RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 58-59. Barnes testified that when he spoke with Casteel:
I told him that we had the gentleman there on a traffic stop and did he know where his truck was and did he know who had his truck and that what I found-what I saw inside the truck and did he have a problem with me searching it.
RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 109. Casteel said that Vanhollebeke had permission to use the truck, but he also expressed concern about the suspected drug paraphernalia. Id. at *319 109-110. He consented to a search of the truck and gave Barnes a key. Id. ; CP at 35 (FF 1.7). According to Barnes:
[F]rom what I can remember, [Casteel] was in disgust about his truck being stopped by law enforcement and did say that the gentleman had permission to use the truck, was concerned that I found drug-that I saw what appeared to be drug paraphernalia in the truck.
And I asked, "Hey, can we search your truck? If not, the city would impound it and they would search it, but they're willing to just search it on scene. Are you okay with that?"
He's like, "Sure," gave me the key.
RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 109-110. 3 Casteel was sick and declined Barnes's invitation to accompany him back to the scene. Id. at 110.
*1277 ¶ 8 When Barnes arrived back at the truck, he gave Garza the key and told him that Casteel had consented to the search. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 32. The officers then searched the passenger compartment and discovered a gun under the driver's seat. Id. at 33. The pipe on the dashboard tested positive for methamphetamine, and officers arrested Vanhollebeke for possession of a controlled substance. Id. at 39. Dispatch advised that Vanhollebeke was a convicted felon. Id. at 77-78.
¶ 9 The State charged Vanhollebeke with one count of first degree unlawful possession of a firearm. CP at 3-4; RP (May 19, 2015) at 230-31. Vanhollebeke moved to suppress the fruits of the search, arguing that the warrantless search was unconstitutional. CP at 5-12; RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 150-51. The trial court denied the motion, CP at 37, reasoning that "there's a reduced expectation of privacy in a borrowed *320 vehicle." RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 153. The trial court made no explicit findings of fact regarding the officers' motivation for contacting Casteel. 4 Vanhollebeke was found guilty, sentenced to 34 months confinement, and assessed fees of $1,380. RP (May 21, 2015) at 482-85; CP at 141-46.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
¶ 10 Vanhollebeke appealed on several grounds, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction.
5
State v. Vanhollebeke,
¶ 11 The Court of Appeals began by acknowledging that this case presented a question left open by
State v. Cantrell,
¶ 12 Neither the Court of Appeals in this case nor the
Cantrell
court analyzed the issue under Washington Constitution article I, section 7.
Cantrell,
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶ 13 We review claims that constitutional rights were violated de novo.
State v. Iniguez,
*322 ANALYSIS
I. Warrantless searches are presumptively unconstitutional, unless they fit within one of the few, narrow exceptions to the warrant requirement
¶ 14 Under both the Washington and United States Constitutions, warrantless searches are per se unreasonable.
Coolidge v. New Hampshire,
¶ 15 The defendant challenged the warrantless search of the borrowed car over his explicit objection. As the criminal defendant charged with a possessory offense resulting from the search, Vanhollebeke has standing to raise this claim.
State v. Williams,
II. While the driver of an absent owner's vehicle does not ordinarily assume the risk that the absent owner will consent to a search, the driver does assume that risk where the facts reasonably suggest it is stolen
A. The federal and state two-part test for authority to consent to search in "common authority" cases
¶ 16 Vanhollebeke now challenges the search of his truck under both the Fourth Amendment and article I, section 7.
*323
In this situation, we generally analyze the Washington State Constitution first. This is true for several reasons, including the fact that the Washington Constitution is more protective of individual privacy.
State v. MacDicken,
¶ 17 But we have previously held that third-party consent issues (like the one raised here) should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment first. Specifically, in
Mathe
-a case addressing a landlord's consent to the search of his tenant's bedroom-this court expressly adopted the Fourth Amendment's two-part test for "questions of [third-party] consent issues under Const. art. [I], § 7."
*1279
¶ 18 The Fourth Amendment standard for valid third-party consent to a search, which this court adopted in
Mathe
and reaffirmed in
State v. Leach,
B. The consenting party, the owner, clearly had the authority to consent to the search in his own right
¶ 19 There is no dispute that the first part of the test is satisfied in this case as the truck's owner, Casteel, could clearly consent to its search "in his own right."
C. The driver of a car owned by another does not ordinarily assume the risk that the owner will consent to a search
¶ 20 We then proceed to the second part of the Mathe l Matlock test: whether Vanhollebeke, by borrowing Casteel's truck, assumed the risk that Casteel might allow others to search it.
¶ 21 As discussed above, the trial court held a hearing on the validity of Casteel's consent. The trial court judge found that
1.2 The defendant exited the vehicle and locked it. He did not have a key and was not able to re-enter the vehicle.
1.3 The defendant did not have identification with him.
1.4 ... [Officers] learned that he was driving on a suspended license and had warrants out of Grant County....
1.5 Officers ... detained him further once they observed a meth pipe and punched out ignition in the car he was driving. ...
*325 1.6 Unable to reach [Casteel] by phone, Deputy Barnes drove to Mr. Casteel's home.
....
1.9 Defendant's interest in the vehicle was permissive and pursuant to an oral agreement between himself and the registered owner.
CP at 34-35. Beyond a brief acknowledgement that Vanhollebeke had Casteel's consent to use the vehicle, RP (Jan. 20, 2017) at 128, Vanhollebeke did not present any evidence indicating that he had exclusive use of the vehicle or that Casteel had loaned him the car for any set length of time, nor any number of other scenarios that could demonstrate more clearly defined privacy expectations or property rights. 11 No one challenges these factual findings.
¶ 22 The trial court judge then concluded as a matter of law, "I think there's a reduced expectation of privacy in a borrowed vehicle.
*1280 I think somebody who borrows a vehicle on an oral agreement has a reduced expectation ...." RP (Jan. 20, 2017) at 153; see also CP at 36 (Conclusion of Law 2.2).
¶ 23 The broad, general statement that all drivers of vehicles owned by a third party have a reduced expectation of privacy lacks support in controlling case law. For example, Vanhollebeke argues that
Randolph,
¶ 24 Property law supports that general expectation. A driver may be using a vehicle based on a lease, a rental, a sharing arrangement, or some other agreement. Such a property right might also form the basis for an enforceable privacy right. As one concurring justice stated in Fernandez v. California,
"[P]roperty rights 'are not the sole measure of Fourth Amendment violations.' " Florida v. Jardines, [569] U.S. [1], 5,133 S.Ct. 1409 , 1414,185 L.Ed.2d 495 (2013). But as we have recently made clear, "[t]he Katz [v. United States,389 U.S. 347 ,88 S.Ct. 507 ,19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) ] reasonable-expectations test 'has been added to, not substituted for ,' the traditional property-based understanding of the Fourth Amendment." Id. at 11,133 S.Ct. at 1417 (quoting United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. [400, 409],132 S.Ct. 945 ,181 L.Ed.2d 911 , ....565 U.S. 400 ,132 S.Ct. 945 ,181 L.Ed.2d 911 (2012) ).
¶ 25 In coming to a different conclusion, the Court of Appeals relied on decisions from Georgia, Texas, and the Eighth Circuit that declined to extend the
Randolph
rule (of
*327
respecting the refusal of one with common authority, rather than the consent of another with common authority) to vehicles. The Court of Appeals came to that conclusion "because of society's lessened expectation of privacy in vehicles as compared to homes."
Vanhollebeke,
¶ 26 We need not opine on the correctness of those factually distinguishable decisions. The key point is that we disagree with the Court of Appeals that these decisions support a broad, general rule that drivers assume the risk of an owner's consent to search.
Sevilla-Carcamo
,
13
Anderson
,
14
*1281
Jensen,
15
and
Hardy
16
all involve defendants who were already under arrest when officers obtained the third party's
*328
consent to the search. They cannot form the basis for a general rule that the driver of a vehicle owned by a third party ordinarily runs the risk that the third party will reclaim it and consent to a search. In addition, in this case, Vanhollebeke was not arrested, but rather lawfully detained and present to object to the search. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 30.
Copeland
involved a disagreement between a driver and passenger: the driver consented to the search and the passenger objected.
D. The evidence in this case, however, gave the officers good reasons to believe the vehicle was stolen; this driver, without a key or identification and with a punched out ignition clearly visible, therefore assumed the risk that the police would contact the absent owner and seek consent to search
¶ 28 We need not decide exactly when a driver's right to privacy in another's vehicle starts to fade away. We are
*330
faced with the much narrower issue of whether the driver of a vehicle he claimed he borrowed but that appears to be stolen-due to the punched out ignition and the driver's lack of a key, along with the driver's claim that he locked it in the vehicle when he exited contrary to the officer's command-assumes the risk that the police will contact the owner and that
owner
will consent to a police search. The answer to that question is clearly yes. This is consistent with the reasoning in the United States Supreme Court's "common authority" cases that "[l]egitimation of expectations of privacy by law must have a source outside of the Fourth Amendment, either by reference to concepts of real or personal property law or to understandings that are recognized and permitted by society."
Rakas v. Illinois,
¶ 29 Vanhollebeke argues that even if the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the search that occurred in this case, article I, section 7 does. Suppl. Br. of Pet'r at 17-26. He is correct that article I, section 7 traditionally provides more robust protection of privacy rights and does not depend on the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness balancing. 19 But Vanhollebeke agrees that Mathe and the Fourth Amendment provide the two-question framework for analyzing whether the owner's consent can trump the driver's refusal. We therefore have no occasion to revisit the Mathe framework for analysis here.
*331 CONCLUSION
¶ 30 The driver of a vehicle generally has a right to refuse a police search of that vehicle. But that driver may assume the risk that the police will contact an absent owner and seek that owner's consent to search instead, in limited circumstances. Vanhollebeke assumed the risk that absent owner Casteel might consent to a search in this case. He did this by words, actions, and plain-view evidence, giving the police officers good reason to believe the truck might be stolen. We therefore affirm the Court of Appeals decision upholding denial of the motion to suppress.
*1283 WE CONCUR:
Fairhurst, C.J.
Johnson, J.
Madsen, J.
Owens, J.
Stephens, J.
Wiggins, J.
González, J.
Yu, J.
Dispatch also advised that Vanhollebeke had warrants out for his arrest, but Garza could not confirm these warrants and never intended to arrest Vanhollebeke on them. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 18-21.
CP at 21 ("I spoke to Deputy Barnes and he told me he would be willing to drive to Hatton and make contact with Casteel to see if we could get permission to search his truck.").
Barnes's statements to Casteel regarding impoundment may have been incorrect. Before the other officers discovered the pipe, Garza had intended to cite Vanhollebeke only for driving with license suspended and then release him. RP (Jan. 20, 2015) at 21-22. No officer testified that there was any discussion of an arrest before Barnes left to contact Casteel. Barnes testified that he was not aware of Garza's intent when he spoke with Casteel.
See CP at 35 (FF 1.6, 1.7) ("Unable to reach him by phone, Deputy Barnes drove to Mr. Casteel's home." "There he advised Mr. Casteel of the situation involving his truck, explained that he did not have to consent to a search of the truck, gave him the option to accompany the deputy back to the truck, and eventually was given a key by Mr. Casteel.").
The Court of Appeals remanded for a new sentencing hearing because it agreed with Vanhollebeke that the State failed to prove his offender score by a preponderance of the evidence.
Vanhollebeke,
Cantrell
held that where the passenger in a borrowed car consents to a search of that car and the driver does not object, contraband found in the search is admissible against the nonobjecting driver.
Suppl. Br. of Resp't re: Gunwall Analysis at 5-6 ("[T]his Court has specifically adopted the federal 'common authority' standard enunciated in U.S. v. Matlock for the purpose of determining issues of consent under article I, section 7 of the State Constitution. The defendant has provided no authority why this Court should now abandon that holding." (citations omitted) ).
Mathe
predates
Gunwall
-and thus does not consider
Gunwall's
analysis. The
Mathe
court acknowledged that article I, section 7 may provide protections different from those in the Fourth Amendment, but nevertheless expressly adopted the federal standard because "this rule best balances the interest of the police in conducting searches and our citizens' right to privacy in their homes."
Leach,
See Suppl. Br. of Pet'r at 12 ("[I]t is entirely unknown whether Vanhollebeke provided consideration for borrowing the truck or whether his use was gratuitous, when and under what circumstances Vanhollebeke was required to return the truck to Casteel, or [if] anything else concerning the nature of the agreement between Vanhollebeke and Casteel ... would provide a factual basis for ascertaining their interests and expectations relative to the truck.").
See also
Randolph,
In
Sevilla-Carcamo,
police stopped a woman for failing to signal a turn, determined that she had no driver's license, placed her under arrest, and asked for consent to search the vehicle.
Anderson,
Jensen,
Hardy,
The Court of Appeals approved the search because it concluded that society generally recognizes the driver of a vehicle as having rights superior to a passenger's.
Copeland,
In
Lumpkins,
officers followed a car with "heavily tinted windows" to a residence and, "out of concern for officer safety," handcuffed the driver when he emerged from the vehicle at a private residence.
State v. Morse,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Justin Dean VANHOLLEBEKE, Petitioner.
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published