Opinion ID: 891622
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: agent perry needed a search warrant to open the opaque bundles

Text: {26} Agent Perry testified that he understood that employees of the bus company had opened the package and discontinued their private search when they discovered bundles wrapped in brown plastic. This information defined the scope of the private search by the bus company. Agent Perry was not shown the contents of the package by the bus company. Instead, he instructed the caller to have the package resealed and shipped to Albuquerque, New Mexico. When the package arrived in Albuquerque several hours later, the bus station manager re-opened the package, either at the direction of Agent Perry or because the manager intended to do so anyway. After the package was opened, Agent Perry saw the opaque bundles. Agent Perry believed, based on his training and experience, that he had probable cause to believe that the bundles contained marijuana. He cut open one or more of the bundles. {27} It is not necessary for us to decide whether Agent Perry could re-open or direct that the package be re-opened without a search warrant since, in any event, he exceeded the scope of the private search. Absent an exception to the warrant requirement, he was required by our constitution to obtain a search warrant if he wanted to open the opaque bundles. It was a neutral judge's responsibility to independently determine whether the circumstances, including the agent's experience and training, gave the officer probable cause to believe that the opaque bundles contained marijuana. Although Agent Perry concluded that he had probable cause to believe the brown plastic bundles contained marijuana, we have never delegated to the officer the final decision of whether the officer did have probable cause. We have required the officer to seek a search warrant from a neutral and detached judge. See Nyce, 2006-NMSC-026, ¶ 9, 139 N.M. 647, 137 P.3d 587 ([T]he constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures prefers an independent review of the evidence, rather than one from police who are engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). Therefore, unless an exception to the warrant requirement exists, Agent Perry opened the opaque bundle in violation of Article II, Section 10. {28} The State suggests that Agent Perry could search the brown plastic wrapped bundles under the plain view doctrine. Under the plain view doctrine, items may be seized without a warrant if the police officer was lawfully positioned when the evidence was observed, and the incriminating nature of the evidence was immediately apparent, such that the officer had probable cause to believe that the article seized was evidence of a crime. State v. Ochoa, 2004-NMSC-023, ¶ 9, 135 N.M. 781, 93 P.3d 1286. Under the plain view exception, the need for a search warrant is obviated if the contents of the container can be inferred by the container's outward appearance or if the contents are in plain view. State v. Vasquez, 112 N.M. 363, 368, 815 P.2d 659, 664 (Ct.App. 1991); see also State v. Johnson, 1996-NMCA-117, ¶ 22, 122 N.M. 713, 930 P.2d 1165 (holding that the cocaine would have been in plain view inside the transparent Life Savers container); United States v. Corral, 970 F.2d 719, 725 (10th Cir.1992) (In cases involving closed containers ... the plain view doctrine may support the warrantless seizure of a container believed to contain contraband but any subsequent search of the concealed contents of the container must be accompanied by a warrant or justified by one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement.). If the State conducts a search without a warrant and without sufficient grounds for an exception to the warrant requirement, we will suppress the evidence to effectuate in the pending case the constitutional right of the accused to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. This recognition of the constitutional nature of the exclusionary rule is based in large part on our Supreme Court's strong preference for the protections afforded by the warrant process. State v. Wagoner, 2001-NMCA-014, ¶ 29, 130 N.M. 274, 24 P.3d 306 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The plain view doctrine did not authorize Agent Perry to open the opaque bundle because he thought he had probable cause to believe the bundles contained marijuana. A warrant was required.