Opinion ID: 2631109
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: neal's subsequent written consent to search the truck was tainted by the prior illegal detention of the truck

Text: {33} Having concluded that the expansion of the traffic stop into a drug investigation and the subsequent ten-minute detention of the truck violated Defendant's rights under the Fourth Amendment, we now consider whether, under the exclusionary rule, we must suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the consensual search of the truck. See Prince, 2004-NMCA-127, ¶ 20, 136 N.M. 521, 101 P.3d 332. For evidence to be admissible, consent must be both voluntary and purged of all taint from a prior illegality. Id.; see also State v. Taylor, 1999-NMCA-022, ¶ 27, 126 N.M. 569, 973 P.2d 246. The voluntariness of Neal's consent is not at issue. We, therefore, turn to the Fourth Amendment taint analysis to determine whether Neal's consent was an exploitation of the prior police illegality. The State contends that any illegality in Officer LaSalle's conduct was vitiated by Neal's voluntary written consent to search the truck. Defendant counters that Neal's consent was tainted and, accordingly, cannot support the search. {34} For evidence obtained following police illegality, but with voluntary consent, to be admissible: there must be a break in the causal chain from the [illegality] to the search. [T]he proper question in evaluating whether a consent was tainted by prior illegality is whether there was [sufficient] attenuation between the [illegality] and the consent to search. In deciding whether the consent is sufficiently attenuated from the Fourth Amendment violation, we consider the temporal proximity of the illegal act and the consent, the presence or absence of intervening circumstances, and the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. Taylor, 1999-NMCA-022, ¶ 28, 126 N.M. 569, 973 P.2d 246 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). {35} In the instant case, a direct causal relationship exists between the illegal expansion of the traffic stop and the subsequent detention of the truck and Neal's consent to search. See Prince, 2004-NMCA-127, ¶ 21, 136 N.M. 521, 101 P.3d 332. Neal, the truck's owner and Defendant's father, arrived at the scene in response to a call from Defendant immediately following Officer LaSalle's illegal detention of the truck. Neal's presence at the scene to give consent was thus a direct result of the original police illegality. Indeed, Neal testified at the suppression hearing that he personally witnessed some of the police illegality when he arrived to see the drug dog jumping in and out of the truck before he had even granted consent. [1] No attenuation, temporal or otherwise, existed between the police illegality and Neal's consent. See id. ¶ 21 (holding there was no attenuation and thus tainted consent where officer conducted an improper investigatory detention immediately before seeking consent to search); State v. Bedolla, 111 N.M. 448, 456, 806 P.2d 588, 596 (Ct.App. 1991) (holding there was no attenuation where defendants gave consent for search after being stopped based on uncorroborated tip that they were dealing cocaine). Therefore, we conclude that Neal's consent to search the truck flowed directly from, and was an exploitation of, the illegal expansion of the traffic stop and the subsequent detention of the truck. See Prince, 2004-NMCA-127, ¶ 21, 136 N.M. 521, 101 P.3d 332. Accordingly, we conclude that Neal's consent was tainted and was thus invalid to support the search of the truck, and all evidence collected as a result should have been suppressed.