Opinion ID: 1232263
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Nature of Hyer's Questions to Malone

Text: ¶ 29 In Griffith, we examined the extent to which a law enforcement officer may question an individual during an investigative detention, and concluded that we must determine whether the incremental intrusion resulting from the nature of the questioning is unreasonable. 236 Wis. 2d 48, ¶38. We evaluate the incremental intrusion by weighing the public interest served by the questioning against the incremental liberty intrusion that resulted from the questioning. Id. (citing Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 411-12 (1997); Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 50 (1979); Mimms, 434 U.S. at 109; Terry, 392 U.S. at 20-21). ¶ 30 In this vein, Malone asserts that Hyer lacked reasonable suspicion to initiate any investigation into narcotics: [T]he only basis for [Hyer's] extending the traffic stop is that he saw an unusual number of air fresheners. By Malone's lights, an unusual number of air fresheners in the vehicle (without the corresponding masking odor) does not, in [and] of itself, provide evidence of drug courier activity or drug use. Accordingly, Malone asserts that the physical evidence obtained in the ensuing searches was a result of an illegal detention and must therefore be suppressed. ¶ 31 However, this argument misstates the relevant inquiry because it assumes that the reasonableness of Hyer's actions vis-á-vis Malone should be measured by the information Hyer possessed at the outset of the encounter. Malone does not challenge Hyer's actions at the outset, however. Rather, Malone challenges questions that followed Hyer's interaction with the two other occupants of the vehicle, interactions that brought to Hyer's attention objective facts that we must take into account when determining whether Hyer's conduct was reasonable. ¶ 32 Malone does not challenge Hyer's authority to ask Malone to exit the vehicle. See Wilson, 519 U.S. at 415. Instead, Malone's position is that once Malone was out of the vehicle, Hyer was not permitted to question him, and even if he was allowed to question him, such questioning must be reasonably related to the speeding violation of the driver or the seat belt violation that Malone may have committed. [3] Thus, the appropriate inquiry is to examine what information was available to Hyer when he asked Malone to step out of the vehicle. ¶ 33 In Betow, the court of appeals, relying on an Eighth Circuit case, declared: There is no question that a police officer may stop a vehicle when he or she reasonably believes the driver is violating a traffic law; and, once stopped, the driver may be asked questions reasonably related to the nature of the stopincluding his or her destination and purpose. 226 Wis. 2d at 93 (citing United States v. Johnson, 58 F.3d 356, 357 (8th Cir. 1995)). The State takes the position that we should ratify this statement of law, and additionally import the principles of other Eighth Circuit cases addressing permissible questions for drivers as well as passengers within the scope of a valid traffic stop. The cases the State asks that we rely upon suggest that it is always permissible to ask a driver as well as the passenger about the group's travel plans. [4] ¶ 34 We decline to formulate a bright-line rule. As we previously stated, the reasonableness of searches and seizures is to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, while the Eighth Circuit cases set forth bright-line rules. We note the difficulty in demarcating at what point in time, if ever, Hyer's conduct became unsupportable based on the justification for stopping the vehicle for speeding, or the extent to which the seat belt violations might have permitted Hyer additional leeway to question Malone. We will simply assume, without deciding, that Hyer's conduct toward Malone could not be supported based solely on the speeding and seat belt violations. In this way, we can test whether Hyer's conduct is supported by articulable suspicion of criminal conduct wholly apart from the purpose of the stop. If the conduct was justified, then we need go no further. Thus, we focus today on whether Hyer had reasonable suspicion to question Malone based on the facts that were known to Hyer at the time he asked Malone to step out of the vehicle. ¶ 35 A law enforcement officer is justified in detaining an individual if he has suspicion grounded in specific, articulable facts and reasonable inferences from those facts, that the individual has committed a crime. State v. Guzy, 139 Wis. 2d 663, 675, 407 N.W.2d 548 (1987) (citing United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 226 (1985); Wendricks v. State, 72 Wis. 2d 717, 723, 242 N.W.2d 187 (1976)). At the point where Hyer asked Malone to exit the vehicle, he was able to point to a number of specific and articulable facts to support his suspicion that the occupants of the vehicle, including Malone, might be involved in illegal activity. ¶ 36 Hyer observed an unusual number of air fresheners. Based upon his law enforcement training, Hyer knew that individuals involved in transporting narcotics may use air fresheners to mask odor. Combined with other facts, this correlation becomes more significant. Malone makes much of cases where the presence or scent of masking agents is held insufficient to satisfy the standards of probable cause or reasonable suspicion, either alone or in conjunction with other facts and circumstances. [5] Yet, he cites no case that stands for the proposition that air fresheners or masking odors may never constitute part of the totality of the circumstances. [6] In State v. Secrist, 224 Wis. 2d 201, 210, 589 N.W.2d 387 (1999), we noted that the unmistakable odor of marijuana coming from an automobile provides probable cause for an officer to believe that the automobile contains evidence of a crime, thus justifying a search. The presence of seven or eight air fresheners in a vehicle occupied by three young men with an average age of 21 does not provide probable cause for the search of a vehicle, but it certainly raises suspicion and justifies reasonable inquiry. ¶ 37 After Hyer conducted a record check on the identities of the occupants in his squad car, he returned to the vehicle and asked the driver, Moede, to step out and to the rear of the vehicle. Once outside the vehicle, Hyer asked Moede where the parties were going, and he responded that the three were heading to a family member's house in Milwaukee. Following this brief encounter with the driver, Hyer asked Marohl, the owner of the car, to exit the vehicle. Hyer asked Marohl where the group was going, and Marohl's response was inconsistent with Moede's response; indeed it constituted a radically different account of the occupants' travel plans. When the owner of a vehicle and the driver of the vehicle are taking a three-hour trip on a Wednesday evening but cannot provide a consistent account of their destination, the inconsistency creates suspicion. Moreover, because Marohl indicated that the group was on its way to a rave party, it was reasonable for Hyer to infer that the driver, Moede, was lying about the destination, and that Marohl was telling the truth. This increased the suspicion, given that Hyer knew there was a correlation between rave parties and narcotics and the inference that Moede may have been deceptive in not sharing that compromising information with Hyer. ¶ 38 In addition, Marohl's explanation for the group's travel plans was internally inconsistent. Unsolicited by any question from Hyer, Marohl followed up his answer to Hyer's first question by telling the officer that he was on probation for drug-related offenses. Marohl's statements prompted Hyer to ask whether his probation agent would find it acceptable that Marohl was attending a rave party, and Marohl promptly backtracked, asserting that it was the other two occupants of the vehicle, and not himself, who were going to the party. He offered no further explanation as to why he was traveling with the group if he was not going to the party with them. It is reasonable for Hyer to have been suspicious given that Moede did not mention the rave party and that Marohl was evasive about his inclination to attend that party. ¶ 39 Furthermore, when Marohl volunteered that he was on probation for drug-related offenses, this served to strengthen Hyer's suspicion that the group might be involved in conduct involving narcotics. All three occupants appeared to be nervous. In sum, Hyer became aware of several specific and articulable facts providing an objective basis to believe that illegal conduct involving narcotics might be afoot before he even asked Malone to step out of the vehicle. ¶ 40 We first ask whether the nature of Hyer's questions was unreasonably intrusive. The public interest served by the questioning in this case undoubtedly comes in detecting and preventing criminal activity. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 22; see also State v. Waldner, 206 Wis. 2d 51, 56, 556 N.W.2d 681 (1996). Hyer identified a number of objective reasons for suspecting criminal activity relating to narcotics. The public interest in detecting and preventing crime is strong. ¶ 41 Against the public interest in the prevention and detection of crime, we assess the severity of Hyer's intrusion upon Malone's liberty. Malone challenges the four questions Hyer asked Malone. The subject matter of the first question was relatively benign. Hyer asked Malone about the group's destination. This question does not delve directly into matters of criminal conduct, and would help to confirm or rebut Hyer's suspicions about the group as created in part by the inconsistent answers of Malone's associates. ¶ 42 The last three questions probed potentially incriminating areas. Hyer asked about Malone's history of tickets, whether Malone was still using drugs, and whether Malone had any drugs on him. These questions, especially the last two, are more intrusive than the first question regarding destination, and therefore constitute a more serious burden to Malone's liberty interest. ¶ 43 It should be noted that Hyer had checked Malone's record before he asked Malone any questions. The extent of Hyer's knowledge was not developed at the suppression hearing. Consequently, we do not know what Hyer knew about Malone's criminal history or traffic history. Hyer may have asked Malone if he had received any tickets in his life to test whether Malone would give a truthful answer. Malone himself did not know the extent of Hyer's knowledge. Malone gave a truthful answer that acknowledged being charged in drug-related matters. That prompted the follow-up question whether he was still using marijuana and an admission from him that he was. And that led to the question whether he had any drugs on him and the consent to conduct a pat-down search. Before Hyer asked Malone the second question, Malone had told him he didn't know the family they were going to see; he was just along for the ride. This again was an inconsistent, implausible answer, spurring an additional question. ¶ 44 On balance, Hyer's conduct toward Malone was reasonable when viewed in light of the objective indications that criminal narcotics activity might be afoot: (1) the presence of an abnormal number of air fresheners, which may be used to mask the odor of narcotics; (2) the radically different accounts of the group's travel plans; (3) Marohl's statement that the group was headed to a rave party, which the driver may have attempted to conceal from the officer; (4) the nervousness of the driver and the passengers, e.g., putting their hands in and out of their pockets; and (5) the other passenger's unsolicited statement that he was on probation for a drugrelated offense. The nature of the intrusionthat is, the subject matter of the questionslined up with Hyer's suspicion and was supported by a number of specific and articulable facts, which, under the totality of the circumstances, suggested that the group might be involved in narcotics. Though Hyer asked somewhat intrusive questions, Hyer's reasonable level of suspicion justified these questions. Accordingly, we conclude that Hyer's conduct in posing these four questions to Malone was reasonable under the circumstances.