Opinion ID: 768110
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Warrantless Searches -The Government's Burden

Text: 16 Because we assume that the search for Smith occurred within the curtilage of Johnson's house, and that Johnson therefore had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched, the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is implicated. In order to demonstrate the legality of this warrantless search, the government has a twofold duty. United States v. Lai, 944 F.2d 1434, 1441 (9th Cir. 1991). First, it must show probable cause to enter the area searched. Id. Applied to the facts of this case, the government must show that the officers had probable cause to believe Smith was on Johnson's property. See United States v. Scott, 520 F.2d 697, 700 (9th Cir. 1975). Second, the government must show that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless search. Lai, 944 F.2d at 1441.
17 Probable cause requires a reasonable belief, evaluated in light of the officer's experience and the practical considerations of everyday life, that the suspect has committed a crime and is to be found in the place to be searched. United States v. Salvador, 740 F.2d 752, 757 (9th Cir. 1984); see also United States v. Lindsey, 877 F.2d 777, 780 (9th Cir. 1989) (requiring a practical common-sense decision, under the totality of the circumstances, that there was a fair probability contraband or evidence of a crime would be found inside the place to be searched) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 (1983)); United States v. Dawkins, 17 F.3d 399, 404 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (applying a totality of the circumstances approach to probable cause, emphasizing the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act) (quoting Gates, 462 U.S. at 231). There is no dispute in this case as to whether Smith committed a crime. Officer Kading knew Smith had five outstanding misdemeanor warrants and, more importantly, that he had just resisted arrest and fled the scene. 18 We must consider whether Kading had probable cause to believe Smith would be found in the place to be searched -Johnson's property. Kading followed as Smith ran down the center of South Skagit Highway until Smith turned south off the highway and into the brush, approximately halfway between his trailer and the driveway to Johnson's residence. Kading initially thought it logical that Smith would return to his mother's house. Yet, Kading'sgut feeling told him that Smith would attempt to avoid such a logical destination. On this belief, Kading drove further west, concluding that Smith would continue to flee in that direction, away from both his trailer and his mother's house. 19 Nothing suggests that Kading's conclusion was anything but reasonable. In this situation, given the direction of Smith's flight from the highway, Kading might reasonably have predicted continued flight in the direction of Smith's mother's house (southeast), Johnson's property (southwest), or straight ahead (due south). Under the totality of the circumstances, Kading made a practical common-sense decision as to which direction Smith was likely to run. Furthermore, that Smith would be attracted to the shelter of a structure -such as Johnson's house, kennel, or shed -is eminently reasonable. While no evidence exists of any relationship between Smith and Johnson, this has no bearing on where Smith might seek refuge during flight from the law. 20 The Fourth Amendment's probable cause requirement cannot limit an officer's search to only the most logical of hiding-places or destinations. Cf. Scott, 520 F.2d at 702 (stating that the doctrine of hot pursuit, as established in Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294 (1967), does no more than allow a fairly broad search while seeking a suspect in order to arrest him) (Ferguson, J., dissenting). Were that the case, police officers' efforts in a hot pursuit would be persistently frustrated by both intelligent criminals and criminals completely incapable of logic: the former because of their ability to predict and thus avoid the most logical destinations and the latter because they would be clueless as to where logic dictates they go. 21 The approximate thirty minute delay between the time Kading lost sight of Smith and the time Kading and Sigman began their search of Johnson's property does not weaken a finding of probable cause. It is well within reason for an officer to conclude that a fleeing criminal may seek a hiding place nearby in an attempt to wait any search out. This is especially true in the rural area at issue in this case, which was dense with brush and trees. Smith could find many temporary hiding places in the area from which to monitor the officers' search efforts. The conclusion that Smith might be hiding nearby his original exit point from the South Skagit Highway, even after a thirty minute period, was a reasonable one. 22 Johnson's offered authority to the contrary of this conclusion is distinguishable and thus unpersuasive. As support for the argument that the pursuing officers had no objective basis for their belief that Smith was hiding somewhere on his property, Johnson cites United States v. Winsor, 816 F.2d 1394 (9th Cir. 1987), vacated on other grounds, 846 F.2d 1569 (9th Cir. 1988) (en banc), Dawkins, 17 F.3d 399, and United States v. Lindsay, 506 F.2d 166 (D.C. Cir. 1974). Though these cases involve warrantless entries, the similarity to Johnson's case ends there. 23 Winsor involved a police search of each room in a hotel where the police had probable cause to believe the fleeing suspect was somewhere in the hotel. 816 F.2d at 1396-97. Noting that each room in the hotel enjoyed its own protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the court determined that, while the police may have had probable cause to believe the suspect was in a room in the hotel, they lacked probable cause to believe he was in any particular room. Id. at 1397. Johnson analogizes his case to Winsor by arguing that, like the hotel rooms in that case, here Kading had no particularized suspicion that Smith was hiding on his property as opposed to any other property. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27 (1968) (requiring, in the context of a reasonable search for weapons on a suspect reasonably believed to be armed and dangerous, that due weight be given, not to [the officer's] inchoateand unparticularized suspicion or `hunch,' but to the specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his experience). Therefore, Johnson argues that Kading and Sigman lacked probable cause to search his property. 24 Johnson's reliance on Winsor is misguided for three reasons. First, the factual distinctions between the two cases cannot be harmonized. Nothing in the Winsor factual scenario gave the police any reason to believe the suspect was hiding in any individual hotel room. Here, after rationally concluding that Smith would not run to hide at his mother's house, Kading concluded that it was at least reasonably likely that Smith would run to hide on Johnson's property, considering where Smith left the highway. This conclusion as to the probable destination or hiding place is easier sustained in this rural area than in a motel, especially where the pursuing officer can make reasonable inferences to eliminate a significant proportion of potential destinations. 25 Second, our precedent requires no more than what Kading did. See Lindsey, 877 F.2d at 780; Salvador, 740 F.2d at 757. Under the totality of the circumstances, Kading made this practical common-sense decision that a fair probability existed that Smith would be found hiding on Johnson's property. We conclude that Kading's gut feeling was a reasonable belief. 5 26 Finally, even if the language from Terry guided our analysis here, it is clear that Kading's hunch was in fact a specific reasonable inference. Terry, 392 U.S. at 27. His belief was not baseless. His thought process was entirely rational and reasonable. Kading attempted to put himself in Smith's shoes to determine where Smith would most likely attempt to hide. This was good police work, not mere guesswork or a blind attempt to find a needle in a haystack. 27 Johnson's reliance on Dawkins is similarly misplaced. In Dawkins, the police received a call from a woman informing them that defendant Dawkins, an escapee from a juvenile detention facility, had drugs and guns in his apartment. 17 F.3d at 401. The court concluded the police officers did not have probable cause to believe Dawkins was inside his apartment. Id. at 407. The court based this conclusion on the fact that the police had just questioned a man who fit the informant's description of Dawkins at another apartment where the informant indicated Dawkins could be found. Id. at 401-02. Furthermore, after emptying his pockets, the man fitting Dawkins's description gave the officers a key that ultimately fit the lock on Dawkins's own apartment door. Id. The court held that the government had not met its burden of demonstrating the requisite urgent need to search Dawkins's apartment without a warrant. 28 Unlike the police in Dawkins, Kading suffered no such failure to see the obvious in his attempt to locate Smith. No clues should have led him to believe, conclusively, that Smith was somewhere other than Johnson's property. Therefore, Johnson's reliance on Dawkins is inappropriate. 29 Finally, Johnson may not rely on Lindsay. In Lindsay, the government attempted to justify the warrantless entry of a hotel room under theories of urgent need, Dorman v. United States, 435 F.2d 385 (1970) (en banc), and hot pursuit of a fleeing bank robber. Lindsay, 506 F.2d at 171-73. The court noted that one factor under the Dorman urgent need exception to the warrant requirement was a strong reason to believe that the suspect is in the dwelling. Id. at 171. The courtalso identified speed and a continuous knowledge of the alleged perpetrator's whereabouts as the elements underpinning the hot pursuit exception. Id. at 173. 30 The police officers in Lindsay already had the registered occupant of the motel room in custody and had last seen the accomplice running away from the motel at least a half an hour earlier. Id. Therefore, under both an urgent need and a hot pursuit analysis, the court concluded that the government could not meet its burden to show the requisite level of suspicion that the accomplice was in the motel room at the time of the search. Id. at 171, 173. 31 While the thirty-minute gap in last-known whereabouts in Lindsay is similar to that of Johnson's case, the crucial difference is that the accomplice was seen running away from the motel, not towards it. See id. at 173; see also id. at 171 (noting that it would be especially unlikely for the accomplice to return if he believed his cohort -the registered occupant of the room -had been apprehended). Thus, if Smith had run north off of South Skagit Highway, it is likely that Kading would not have had the requisite reasonable belief to establish probable cause to search Johnson's property to the south of the highway. 32 Therefore, because we conclude Kading reasonably believed -based on the totality of circumstances and a practical common-sense decision -that Smith would be found on Johnson's premises, the warrantless search of Johnson's property did not lack probable cause.
33 Johnson next argues that the initial warrantless search of his property does not fit within any exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement, thus making it an illegal search. The district court denied Johnson's suppression motion, citing both hot pursuit and exigent circumstances as the applicable exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. The relevant exception to the Fourth Amendment in this case first developed in Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294 (1967). In Warden, the Supreme Court upheld a warrantless search where the exigencies of the situation made that course imperative. Id. at 298 (quoting McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 456 (1948)). The Court held that [t]he Fourth Amendment does not require police to delay in the course of an investigation if to do so would gravely endanger their lives or the lives of others. Id. at 298-99; see also United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 42-43 (1976) (Hot pursuit means some sort of a chase, but[not necessarily] an extended hue and cry in and about the public streets.) (internal quotations and punctuation omitted). We have treated this language as creating the doctrine of hot pursuit. See, e.g., Scott, 520 F.2d at 700. 34 This court has defined exigent circumstances to mean those circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that entry . . . was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of the suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts. United States v. McConney, 728 F.2d 1195, 1199 (9th Cir. 1984) (en banc); see also Lindsey, 877 F.2d at 78081. If there is any distinction between hot pursuit and the exigent circumstance involving the escape of the suspect, it is immaterial under the circumstances of this case. 35 Having concluded that there is no material difference between the doctrines of hot pursuit and exigent circumstances involving the escape of a suspect for the purposes of this case, the government's burden is clear. Though there need not be an extended hue and cry in and about the public streets, Santana, 427 U.S. at 43, to fit within this exception to the warrant requirement,the government must show that the officers' pursuit of Smith was immediate or continuous. See Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 753 (1984); Salvador, 740 F.2d at 758 n.5. Additionally, as a finding of exigent circumstances necessarily presupposes inadequate time to acquire a warrant, the government's burden is not satisfied unless it can demonstrate that a warrant could not have been obtained in time even by telephone under the procedure authorized by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(c)(2). United States v. Manfredi, 722 F.2d 519, 522 (9th Cir. 1983). 36 Johnson argues Kading's and Sigman's search cannot be justified by a hot pursuit exigency exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. Therefore, he argues, the officers' failure to acquire a warrant prior to the initial search of his property requires the suppression of any evidence found during that search and, as fruit of the poisonous tree, any evidence found during the February 18 search exercised pursuant to a warrant. As noted above, his argument focuses on two separate points: first, that the search for Smith was neither immediate nor continuous; and second, that the search may not be supported under a rationale of exigent circumstances due to the minor nature of the underlying misdemeanor warrants for which the officers pursued Smith. We will discuss these issues separately. 6 37
38 The hot pursuit exigent circumstance exception invoked by the government to justify the officers' warrantless search of Johnson's property requires that pursuit be either immediate or continuous from the scene of the crime. Welsh, 466 U.S. at 753; Salvador, 740 F.2d at 758 n.5. Any exigency is to be viewed from the totality of the circumstances known to the officers at the time of the warrantless intrusion. Lindsey, 877 F.2d at 781. Furthermore, the government must produce specific and articulable facts to justify the finding of exigent circumstances. United States v. Alvarez, 810 F.2d 879, 881 (9th Cir. 1987) (quoting United States v. Driver, 776 F.2d 807, 810 (9th Cir. 1985)). Warden taught that [t]he Fourth Amendment does not require police officers to delay in the course of an investigation if to do so would gravely endanger their lives or the lives of others. 387 U.S. at 298-99. Conversely, here we are forced to decide whether, on the facts of this case, the Fourth Amendment hot pursuit exigent circumstance exception required Officer Kading to immediately leave his vehicle and trudge off into the dense brush and woods in search of Smith, exposing himself to a possible ambush. We decide that hewas not required to do so in order to fit within this exception to the warrant requirement. 39 A substantial delay between the last known sighting of a fleeing criminal and the beginning of a search for that criminal will clearly negate any applicability of the hot pursuit exigent circumstance exception. See Alvarez, 810 F.2d at 881-82 (holding agents' actions fundamentally inconsistent with any true exigency where between ninety minutes and two hours elapsed from the time they learned where suspect was located to when they actually arrested him); Salvador, 740 F.2d at 755-56, 758 n.5 (no hot pursuit where bank robbery occurred in early afternoon and police set up surveillance of house, which led to search just prior to 8:00 that evening). Furthermore, where it is clear the police can set up a guard of the perimeter so as to prevent the suspect's escape while waiting for a warrant, a claim of exigency is severely undermined. See United States v. Duran-Orozco, 192 F.3d 1277(9th Cir. Nov. 2, 1999) (where police could guard perimeter of house during two-and-a-half hour wait for warrant, warrantless look into back window not supported by exigency rationale). Here, due to the nature of the terrain, the officers would not have been able to establish a perimeter sufficient to ensure Smith's capture or inability to escape. 40 Kading's pursuit of Smith was both immediate and continuous, at least up until the point when Smith ran off the highway into the woods. Johnson argues that the thirty-minute delay between the last-known sighting and the first entrance onto his property sufficiently cooled down the pursuit to take it outside the realm of any Fourth Amendment exceptions. To this end he relies on O'Brien v. City of Grand Rapids, 23 F.3d 990 (6th Cir. 1994), and United States v. Morgan, 743 F.2d 1158 (6th Cir. 1984). Both cases, however, are distinguishable. 41 In O'Brien, the police surrounded a suspect's home when the suspect brandished a weapon at an officer, who was on the scene to aid in the execution of a writ of seizure on the suspect's pick-up truck. 23 F.3d at 993. The officer called for backup, and the police engaged in an approximately nine-hour standoff with the suspect. Id. at 993-94. After approximately four-and-a-half hours, the police performed the first of four warrantless probes of the house by peering into a window using mirrors. Id. at 994. The Sixth Circuit decided that the probes were not justified by any exigent circumstance or by hot pursuit, as the initial officer on the scene chose not to pursue the suspect after the first confrontation, but instead called for backup to surround the house and secure the area, thereby slowing down and controlling the action. Id. at 997. 42 The case we must decide has two important factors which distinguish it from O'Brien. First, there was no standoff. Second, the area was by no means secure and the action was clearly not controlled. Cf. United States v. Curzi, 867 F.2d 36, 42 (1st Cir. 1989) (rejecting exigency rationale where officers waited for almost two hours before bringing the operation to its planned climax . . . . Time was ample; manpower abounded; the premises were surrounded and secured; the neighbors had been led to safety; the drama was being played out during daylight hours and in an urban setting. All in all the situation was in good control.). Both of these factors make Kading's delay for backup entirely consistent with a hot pursuit rationale tempered with concerns for officer safety. Cf. Lindsey, 877 F.2d at 781-82 (rejecting argument that one hour delay for reinforcements precluded finding of exigency where officers expected backups to arrive quickly and did not realize there would be a delay). 43 The exigency had not dissipated merely because Kading understandably delayed his pursuit due to safety concerns. Of course, a safety concern must be reasonable and cannot be used as a pretextfor a more controlled and organized -yet still warrantless -search. We merely decide under these facts that in a heavily wooded, rural area, with a single officer in pursuit of a fleeing suspect, the officer's decision to delay a search for a reasonable amount of time to wait for backup is not inconsistent with the hot pursuit exigent circumstance exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. 44 Morgan, Johnson's other relied-upon case for his argument that the officers' pursuit was neither immediate nor continuous, is similarly distinguishable. In that case, officers decided -prior to arriving at a suspect's home -to meet at a coffee shop to assess the situation, discuss the logistics of approaching the suspect's home, position everyone, and give out assignments. Morgan, 743 F.2d at 1160. Noting that the hot pursuit exception is reserved for situations where speed is essential, the court decided these facts directly contradicted the notion that the officers were in hot pursuit of the suspect since their first encounter with him earlier that day. Id. at 1162. Here, aside from briefly conferring to decide that it would take too long for the canine unit to arrive and that, with three officers now on the scene, safety concerns had diminished, Kading and Sigman did not stop to plan or organize their efforts to the extent the officers did so in Morgan. Thus, the government's claim of a hot pursuit exigent circumstance does not fail on these grounds. 45 Other courts have similarly concluded that the hot pursuit trail does not necessarily cool down because an officer briefly delays a search in the course of taking prudent safety precautions. See Griffin v. City of Clanton, 932 F. Supp. 1359, 1367 (M.D. Ala. 1996) (concluding that hot pursuit still applicable where officer waited for backup, which arrived before suspect had gained admittance to aunt's house though he was banging on back door and yelling); Laurent v. Town of Sturbridge, No. 89-30005-F, 1990 WL 92470, at -8 (D. Mass. June 18, 1990) (concluding that hot pursuit exigent circumstance applicable where [i]t would have been as imprudent for [the officer] to have marched directly into the [suspect's] house as it would be incorrect to penalize him for waiting for assistance when need for backup compelling and backup arrives within thirty minutes). Under the circumstances of this case, Kading's decision to delay his search until backup arrived broke neither the immediacy nor the continuity of his search for Smith. Therefore, Johnson's argument on this point fails. 7 46
47 Johnson's final argument focuses on the nature of Smith's outstanding warrants. Relying on Welsh, he argues that the five warrants underlying Kading's pursuit of Smith cannot support a finding of hot pursuit exigency. The Supreme Court hesitated to find exigent circumstances in Welsh especially when warrantless arrests in the home are at issue . . . when the underlying offense for which there is probable cause to arrest is relatively minor. 466 U.S. at 750. Thus, the gravity of the underlying offense is an important factor to be considered when determining whether any exigency exists. Id. at 753; see also Salvador, 740 F.2d at 759. Notwithstanding our hesitancy to engage in the type of measuring necessary to gauge the relative gravity of offenses for purposes of exigency determinations, Johnson's reliance on Welsh is misplaced for several reasons. See Welsh, 466 U.S. at 760 (A test under which the existence of exigent circumstances turns on the perceived gravity of the crime would significantly hamper law enforcement andburden courts with pointless litigation concerning the nature and gradation of various crimes.) (White, J., dissenting). 48 First, and most determinative of our outcome on this issue, Kading's pursuit was not based on the underlying five warrants alone, but also on a current and continuous violation of the law. Smith had just actively resisted Kading's attempts to arrest him. The officers in Welsh arrested the defendant in that case while he lay drunk and naked in his bed. Id. at 743. Had the defendant there not complied with the arresting officers, but instead leapt out his window and run down the street, the Court would have been faced with a very different case -and the neighborhood with a very different spectacle. 49 This first point is even more clearly demonstrated in view of one attempted rationalization of the Welsh court's emphasis on the gravity of the offense. There is some suggestion that the gravity of the offense limitation makes sense because the seriousness of the offense with which a suspect may be charged also bears on the likelihood that he will flee and escape apprehension if not arrested immediately. Id. at 759 (White, J., dissenting); see also United States v. George, 883 F.2d 1407, 1413 n.3 (One suspected of committing a minor offense would not likely resort to desperate measures to avoid arrest and prosecution.). Assuming the offenses underlying Smith's warrants could be considered only shallowly grave, not only is there a likelihood that he would flee anyway, but, in fact, he did flee. Whatever constraint Welsh may place on an officer's attempt to pursue a fleeing suspect became insignificant when Smith began to actively resist arrest. 50 Second, Welsh involved a warrantless intrusion into the suspect's home to arrest him for driving a motor vehicle while under the influence. 466 U.S. at 743. In support of its holding, the Court reiterated the long-established supposition that physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed. Id. at 748 (quoting United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313 (1972)). Thus, while the gravity of the underlying offense is certainly a factor, it is not the only variable influencing Welsh and its progeny. Here, Kading and Sigman did not enter Johnson's house in the process of searching for Smith. 51 Therefore, we conclude that Johnson's argument based on the severity of the warrants underlying the search for Smith is unpersuasive because Smith actively resisted Kading's attempts to arrest him and because the search never included the inside of anyone's home. III