Case Name: STATE OF NEW JERSEY, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. RORY SCOTT, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT
Court: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1989-02-24
Citations: 231 N.J. Super. 258
Docket Number: 
Parties: STATE OF NEW JERSEY, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. RORY SCOTT, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Superior Court Reports
Volume: 231
Pages: 258–277

Head Matter:
STATE OF NEW JERSEY, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. RORY SCOTT, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT.
Superior Court of New Jersey-Appellate Division
Argued November 2, 1988
Decided February 24, 1989.
Before Judges KING, BRODY and ASHBEY.
James S. Brewer, Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for appellant (John H. Stamler, Union County Prosecutor, attorney; James S. Brewer, of counsel and on the letter brief).
William J. McCarthy argued the cause for respondent.

Opinion:
The opinion of the court was delivered by
BRODY, J.A.D.
We granted the State's motion for leave to appeal an order suppressing evidence. Defendant is charged with possession of less than 25 grams of marijuana, a disorderly persons offense. N.J.S.A. 24:21-20a(4). The marijuana was in plain view on a bureau in his bedroom. The issue is whether shortly before he saw the marijuana, police officer Michael Mathis, the only witness at the suppression hearing, had lawfully arrested defendant pursuant to the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act (the act), N.J.S.A. 2C:25-1 et seq., and therefore had the right to accompany defendant to his bedroom.
Officer Mathis was on patrol in his radio car on Saturday, June' 6, 1987, when at about 2 p.m. he was dispatched to defendant's home in response to a domestic dispute complaint made by defendant's sister, Dolores. The dispatcher advised Officer Mathis that Dolores had called the police to say that she had a domestic violence restraining order against defendant and "she felt that her life was being threatened by Rory being inside the house."
Acting on Dolores's complaint, a Superior Court judge on May 28 had issued ex parte a temporary restraining order barring defendant from their home and prohibiting him from "having any contact with the plaintiff or harassing plaintiff or plaintiffs relatives in any way..,."
The order required defendant and his sister to appear for a hearing on June 2. The sheriff officer's return of service at the foot of a copy of the filed order shows that only Dolores was served. The dispatcher did not tell Officer Mathis, presumably because she did not know, that the court had vacated the temporary restraining order on June 2 because neither party appeared.
When the officer arrived at defendant's home, he waited for another officer who also had been dispatched there. Departmental procedures call for dispatching at least two officers to the scene of a domestic dispute because of the potential for sudden violence. Officer Mathis described those procedures in his direct examination:
Q What is the procedure when you are called to a domestic dispute? A Separate both parties, calm things down, find out the stories, make sure they're aren't any cuts, people aren't beat up and basically find out what's going on. And if there's any restraining order on either party, go from there.
Q What is your responsibility with respect to the individuals involved as far as safety?
A To protect them from being harmed by each other, separate them and also protect ourselves. We have to keep our eyes on them because they can turn on you at any time.
When the other officer arrived, Officer Mathis left his patrol car and they both walked up the driveway. As they neared the house, the officers "heard two individuals arguing, male and female, two voices as we approached the front door." Officer Mathis testified that the voices were "loud," "shouting."
Q Describe it besides shouting, if you can?
A I kept hearing Dolores saying, "I want you out of the house. I want you out of the house."
I can't recall what Rory was saying. He's hard to understand at times.
After Officer Mathis knocked on the door, Dolores invited him in and "advised me as we entered that there was a restraining order on Rory and she said she wanted him out of the house at that time."
Defendant was standing quietly in the living room in his pajamas. His sister sat down on a couch.
Q When you entered the house and you saw that Dolores had sat back down to the couch and Rory was calm, were you satisfied that any danger that might have been was suppressed?
A No.
Q Why?
A Dolores actually didn't — she sat on the couch but she still kept shouting she wanted Rory out of the house.
Q She didn't say anything else?
A No.
*
Q What action did you take after that?
A I advised Rory that he would have to come back to headquarters with me.
He asked me if he could get his clothes because he was partially dressed, all he was wearing was pajama bottoms, no shirt, no shoes.
*
Q After Dolores Scott requested that her brother be taken out of the house did Rory say anything?
A No, he was very cooperative, willing to leave.
Q He offered no resistance?
A None at all.
Q Did you ask Rory any questions at that time?
A No, I just told Rory he had to come back to headquarters with me. He requested to get some clothes, comb his hair.
Officer Mathis followed defendant into his bedroom because department procedure is to follow — whenever domestic, to follow the individuals around the house for our own protection in case they pick up a gun or knife.
When he entered the bedroom, Officer Mathis saw the marijuana on defendant's bureau.
The officer neither saw nor heard evidence that defendant had been violent. Although not in his report of the incident, he testified that Dolores told him that she feared for the life of her year-old baby if defendant was not removed from the house because he was "kind of crazy."
THE COURT: Did she give any indication, "crazy," in what way that would make him dangerous?
THE WITNESS: No, she didn't.
The officer testified that before he became a police officer, he had been a dispatcher and that as a dispatcher he "did send the cars to the house."
THE COURT:. Do you have any violence that you heard?
THE WITNESS: I believe not violence but about eight months prior to this incident, he was — he pulled his pants down to his next door neighbor, a female. The lady lived next door to him. And grabbed his genitals and waved to the next door lady that lives next door.
THE COURT: And was there ever any threat of harm to anybody in a physical sense other than their sensitivities?
THE WITNESS: No, not that I can recall.
THE COURT: What made you think he was threatening? Was there something about it or was it simply — you understand. We're trying to find out simply because there was a restraining order that you felt required his removal or was there, in fact, besides that some actual threat that you felt that he posed through something you saw or something that you had any basis for believing.
*
THE WITNESS: Dolores didn't actually state anything that he physically abused her or threatened her but by the way she was acting and the way she wanted him removed from the house, she felt her life was threatened. She wouldn't actually come out and say why she felt her life was threatened but just kept saying she felt she was in danger because of her baby. Her baby is only one year old.
When Officer Mathis returned to headquarters with defendant he learned that the order on which he relied in making the arrest had been vacated.
Q Was there a valid restraining order?
A There was a restraining order signed by Dolores on Eory at the time.
I was informed by headquarters they had reason to believe the restraining order was still in effect.
When we got back to headquarters we looked at it and found out the days had expired for the number of days to go down to court and have it signed by the judge. And they never went to the court to have it signed by the judge, so it actually wasn't.
No one asked the officer what he had looked at that made him realize that the order had been vacated. It is not clear from the record whether the dispatcher had a basis, other than Dolores's assertion, for her statement to Officer Mathis that the temporary restraining order was in effect.
In State v. Bruzzese, 94 N.J. 210 (1983), police executed a valid arrest warrant at the defendant's home. The arresting officers permitted the defendant to go to his bedroom to dress before taking him to police headquarters. When they accompanied him there they saw and seized incriminating evidence that was in plain view. The Court held that the police acted reasonably in accompanying the defendant to his bedroom.
Accordingly, we rule that once a defendant is placed under lawful arrest, the arresting officer has the right to remain at his side and to follow him wherever he chooses to go. The officer need not posit any special need for the accompaniment so long as the arrest is lawful. The accompaniment is purely a precautionary measure. [Id. at 232. Emphasis supplied.]
The issue presented in the present case is whether defendant's warrantless arrest was lawful.
The trial judge analogized defendant's arrest to an arrest based on an arresting officer's erroneous but good faith belief that there is an existing arrest warrant. In such a case the arrest is not lawful even if the officer's belief was engendered by the statements of other police officers. Whiteley v. Warden of Wyoming Penitentiary, 401 U.S. 560, 568, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 1037, 28 L.Ed.2d 306, 313 (1971); State v. Cullars, 224 N.J.Super. 32, 37-38 (App.Div.1988).
In evaluating the lawfulness of an arrest, the analogy between an arrest warrant and a temporary restraining order issued pursuant to the act is not as apt as it may first appear. To be lawful an arrest must be based upon probable cause to believe that the person arrested had committed or was committing an offense. Where an arrest is based upon a warrant, the evidence of probable cause was perceived by the judge who issued the warrant; if there is no warrant, the arrest is unlawful because there is no probable cause.
Where exigent circumstances authorize a warrantless arrest, the arrest is based upon the evidence of probable cause that is perceived by the arresting officer. If the officer does not perceive evidence giving him probable cause to believe that the person arrested had committed or was committing a crime, the arrest is unlawful. State v. Cook, 47 N.J. 402, 414 (1966). A warrantless arrest for a disorderly persons offense is lawful only if the offense was committed in the arresting officer's presence. Bauer v. Borough of Cliffside Park, 225 N.J.Super. 38, 46 (App.Div.1988); State in Interest of J.B., Jr., 131 N.J.Super. 6, 13 (J. & D.R.Ct.1974).
The question here is not whether at the time of the arrest there was an existing temporary restraining order evidencing probable cause that defendant had once committed an act of domestic violence. Rather, the question is whether the arresting officer had probable cause to believe that defendant had knowingly violated a court order that barred him from the home.
At the time of this incident, violation of a temporary restraining order issued pursuant to the act was prosecuted as fourth-degree contempt, N.J.S.A. 2C:29-9:
A person is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree if he purposely or knowingly disobeys a judicial order or hinders, obstructs or impedes the effectuation of a judicial order or the exercise of jurisdiction over any person, thing or controversy by a court, administrative body or investigative entity.
The essential elements of the crime are that a person with a purposeful or knowing culpability, disobeys or hinders the effectuation of a court order.
Reflecting those elements, the act permits a police officer to make a warrantless arrest if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person arrested had been served with and violated an order issued pursuant to the act. N.J.S.A. 2C:25-5 provides:
a. A law enforcement officer shall arrest a person if a victim exhibits sign of injury caused by an act of domestic violence.
b. A law enforcement officer may arrest a person:
(1) When the officer has probable cause to believe that a person has violated, the terms of an order issued pursuant to section 10, 11, 13 or 14 of this act and that service has been effected either in person or by substituted service. The officer may verify, if necessary, the existence of an order with the appropriate law enforcement agency; or
(2) When there is other probable cause to believe that an act of domestic violence has been committed. [The Legislature added paragraph a. by enacting L.1987, c. 356, § 1, effective April 4, 1988.]
The State relies on the discretionary arrest provisions of what are presently designated subparagraphs b(l) and b(2).
For the arrest here to be lawful under subparagraph b(l), Officer Mathis must have had probable cause to believe that (1) defendant had violated the temporary restraining order and (2) the order had been served upon him.
Dolores's statement gave the officer probable cause to believe that an existing temporary restraining order had been issued under the act. However, the officer did not know what relief the order provided and therefore did not have probable cause to believe that defendant violated it merely by his presence in the home. Dolores's demand that defendant be re moved from the home did not give the officer a reasonable basis for knowing whether defendant's presence in the home violated the order, whether defendant had done something else that violated the order or whether defendant had done nothing that violated the order. The officer failed to ask Dolores or anyone at headquarters what the order provided.
Although the act does not require an arresting officer to verify the existence of a temporary restraining order, he must have some reasonable basis for knowing what conduct the order proscribes or prescribes in order to have probable cause to believe that a person violated it. The arrest was unlawful because the State failed to prove that Officer Mathis had probable cause to believe that defendant violated the provisions of an order issued pursuant to the act.
Even if our dissenting colleague is correct in concluding that the officer had probable cause to believe that the court had restrained defendant from being in the home, the State did not sustain its burden to prove that the officer had probable cause to believe that defendant had been served with the order, a separate and distinct predicate to a lawful arrest under subparagraph b(l). Without probable cause to believe that defendant had been served with the order, the officer had no basis for believing that defendant violated the order purposefully or knowingly, the culpability necessary to commit a contempt.
Defendant's silence cannot be interpreted as an acknowledgment that he had been served with the order. In addition to defendant's general right to remain silent in the presence of an arresting police officer, there was no occasion for him to deny that he had been served. We cannot tell from Officer Mathis's testimony whether defendant heard Dolores tell the officer as she let him in that she had obtained the court order and there is no evidence that the officer advised defendant before the arrest that there was a court order. Officer Mathis testified that the only thing he said to defendant was that he had to come to police headquarters.
The dissent appears to proceed from the mistaken assumption that the officer was responding to a domestic violence complaint. Dolores's complaint was not that defendant had committed an act of domestic violence but that he had violated a court order. The trial judge expressly found that there had been no act of domestic violence and that the officer did not have probable cause to believe otherwise. We have quoted generously from Officer Mathis's testimony to demonstrate that he perceived little if any evidence to give him probable cause to believe that defendant had committed an act of violence so as to render the arrest lawful under subparagraph b(2). We sustain the trial judge's conclusion that the officer did not have probable cause to believe that defendant had been violent, because his findings that the officer neither saw nor heard evidence of an act of domestic violence "could reasonably have been reached on sufficient credible evidence present in the record." State v. Johnson, 42 N.J. 146, 162 (1964).
We share our dissenting colleague's concern that we not discourage police from arresting a person where there is probable cause to believe that he has knowingly violated a restraining order issued pursuant to the act or has committed an act of domestic violence that prompted the complaint to which the police are responding. At the same time we must not lose sight of legislative limitations on the authority of police officers to arrest a person accused of violating a domestic violence restraining order where the officer does not have probable cause to believe that the order prohibited what would otherwise be lawful conduct, where the officer does not have probable cause to believe that the order had been served on the person accused, or where the officer does not have probable cause to believe that the complaint to which he is responding had been prompted by an act of domestic violence.
Affirmed.
N.J.S.A 2C:25-14d provides:
Emergency relief may include forbidding the defendant from returning to the scene of the domestic violence together with any other appropriate relief.
The act gives the court authority to issue temporary restraining orders that may provide a wide range of unspecified "emergency relief." N.J.S.A. 2C:25-14b provides:
If it appears that the plaintiff is in danger of domestic violence, the judge shall, upon consideration of the plaintiffs domestic violence complaint, order emergency relief including ex parte relief, in the nature of a temporary restraining order. A decision shall be made by the judge regarding the emergency relief forthwith. An order granting emergency relief, together with all pleadings, process and other orders, shall immediately be forwarded to the sheriff for immediate service of the order for emergency relief upon the defendant.
The officer testified that the home is owned by defendant's father.
N.J.S.A. 2C:29-9 has been amended to add a specific reference to violations of orders issued pursuant to the act. Such violations are now disorderly persons offenses unless the conduct which constitutes the violation is itself a crime or disorderly persons offense, in which case the violation is a fourth-degree crime. L.1988, c. 28, § 3.