Opinion ID: 2218296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: patdown

Text: In State v. Grant, 361 N.W.2d 243 (N.D. 1985), police, with a warrant, were searching a house when Grant entered with the owner. An officer questioned Grant for a few minutes and requested to see her purse, telling her that she had no choice in the matter. Grant was charged with possession of marijuana, but the trial court granted her motion to suppress the evidence found in her purse. This court ruled that the State's appeal was untimely and ineffective. Nevertheless, this court went on to point out that the search of Grant's purse was not based on a reasonable belief that she was armed, quoting Terry, infra, Ybarra, infra, and Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981). Grant, at 245. In Grant, we rejected the idea that officers executing a search warrant may routinely frisk for weapons anyone present at the scene of a valid search, but we did not foreclose a patdown search for weapons where circumstances created any valid concern for safety. In limited circumstances, police may stop and pat down an individual, checking for weapons without probable cause to arrest. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1967). The United States Supreme Court held that stop and frisk procedures were searches and seizures protected by the Fourth Amendment. Id., at 16-17, 88 S.Ct. at 1877-78. The Court focused on the governmental interest in protecting officers and citizens and on the reasonableness of the action. Id., at 23-24, 88 S.Ct. at 1881-82. The Court ruled that a Terry stop was permissible but, mindful of the intrusive nature of a stop and patdown, narrowly tailored the ruling: We merely hold today that where a police officer observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot ... where in the course of investigating this behavior he identifies himself as a policeman and makes reasonable inquiries, and where nothing ... serves to dispel his reasonable fear for his own or others' safety, he is entitled ... to conduct a carefully limited search of the outer clothing of such persons in an attempt to discover weapons.... Id., at 30, 88 S.Ct. at 1884-85. Where a stop of a person without a warrant is justified, a carefully limited search of the outer clothing for potential weapons is permissible for safety reasons. Reasoning from Terry, we readily conclude that Maixner's patdown of Zearley was justifiable. In a remarkably similar case, a California appellate court arrived at a similar conclusion. People v. Thurman, 209 Cal. App.3d 817, 257 Cal.Rptr. 517 (1989). In Thurman the appellant, relying on Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 100 S.Ct. 338, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979), claimed that there was no reason to believe he was armed and dangerous and therefore, under Terry, the search was unlawful. The California appellate court rejected that contention, stating: We have no hesitation whatever in holding that Officer Azuar acted reasonably and prudently in conducting the pat search of appellant in the circumstances. Here, a neutral and detached magistrate had judicially approved a warranted search for evidence of drug trafficking at the private residence where appellant was found. The officers whose duty required them to execute the warranted search were thus well aware they were engaged in an undertaking fraught with the potential for sudden violence. They were necessarily cognizant of the very real threat that the occupants of the residence were within an environment where weapons are readily accessible and often hidden, nor could they discount the possibility that one or more of the individuals found inside were personally armed. In this atmosphere Officer Azuar, a 10-year veteran of police work, came upon appellant, at close range, quietly seated on a sofa. That appellant's posture, at that moment, was non-threatening does not in any measure diminish the potential for sudden armed violence that his presence within the residence suggested. To require an officer to await an overt act of hostility, as appellant suggests, before attempting to neutralize the threat of physical harm which accompanies an occupant's presence in a probable drug trafficking residential locale, would be utter folly. Thurman, supra, 257 Cal.Rptr., at 519-520. Relying on Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 110, 98 S.Ct. 330, 333, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977), the California court concluded: The brief, relatively private intrusion upon appellant's personal security pales in significance when balanced against the officer's need to protect himself and others from the documented potential for violence inherent in a judicially sanctioned search for narcotics in a private residence. The risk of approaching an occupant of a private residence which is the probable site of drug trafficking corresponds to, if not exceeds, `... the inordinate risk confronting an officer as he approaches a person seated in an automobile.' Thurman, [257 Cal.Rptr.] at 520. In Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 100 S.Ct. 338, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979), based on an informant's statements, police obtained a warrant to search a bar and the bartender for evidence of possession of illegal drugs. Upon entering the bar, the police announced that they were going to conduct a cursory search for weapons, authorized by an Illinois statute. Id., at 88-89, 100 S.Ct. at 340-41. The officer removed nothing from Ybarra's pocket during the initial patdown. After everyone in the bar had been patted down, the officer returned to Ybarra and removed a packet of heroin from his pocket. The trial court denied Ybarra's motion to suppress the heroin and Ybarra was convicted of its possession. After Illinois appellate courts upheld the conviction, Ybarra appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which reversed and remanded. The Court found that the police had no probable cause to search Ybarra because patrons were not included in the warrant and because Ybarra gave them no indication of criminal activity. Id., at 90-91, 100 S.Ct. at 341-42. [A] person's mere propinquity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search that person. Id., at 91, 100 S.Ct. at 342. The Court held that a search must be supported by probable cause particularized with respect to that person. Id. Presence at premises covered by a search warrant is not sufficient. Id. The patdown of Ybarra was not justified because it was not supported by a reasonable belief that he was armed and dangerous. Id., at 92, 100 S.Ct. at 342-43. The Court reminded police that Terry created a very narrow exception to the probable cause requirement: Nothing in Terry can be understood to allow a generalized `cursory search for weapons' or, indeed, any search whatever for anything but weapons. Id., at 93-94, 88 S.Ct. at 343. As do we, the Thurman court distinguished Ybarra: Unlike a business open to the general public, a private residence does not attract casual visitors off the street. When the private residence has been judicially determined as the probable site of narcotic transactions, the occupants are very likely to be involved in drug trafficking in one form or another. Moreover, because of the private nature of the surroundings and the recognized propensity of persons `engaged in selling narcotics [to] frequently carry firearms to protect themselves from would-be robbers,' ( People v. Lee (1987) 194 Cal. App.3d 975, 983, 240 Cal.Rptr. 32) the likelihood that the occupants are armed or have ready accessibility to hidden weapons is conspicuously greater than in cases where, as in Ybarra, the public freely enters premises where legal business is transacted. Thurman, supra, 257 Cal.Rptr., at 520. We conclude that Maixner's patdown of Zearley was a reasonable search for safety reasons. Therefore, the trial court's analysis of the reasonableness of the patdown was mistaken.