Opinion ID: 1215390
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Emergency/Exigent Circumstances Exception.

Text: In this case, the deputies did not have a warrant to enter defendant's premises. The question is whether the entry may be justified under an exception to the warrant requirement. This court has recognized the existence of an emergency doctrine exception to the warrant requirement in the context of investigation of crime. State v. Miller, 300 Or. 203, 229, 709 P.2d 225 (1985). The trial court here concluded that there was no emergency and thus no justification for the warrantless entry. We are bound by the trial court's determination of what actually happened and limit our review to determining whether legal principles were correctly applied. State v. Davis, supra, 295 Or. at 238, 666 P.2d 802. Under the emergency/exigent circumstances exception, a warrantless entry requires probable cause. The deputies did not have probable cause to believe that defendant had been victimized by criminal activities upon his premises and was in need of their immediate assistance. They had not received a report of criminal activities or violence, merely that defendant's house was unkempt, his dogs unattended, and his vehicles absent from their usual location. Nor was the report of an empty pistol holder or defendant's failure to respond to his friend's telephone or verbal calls sufficient to give rise to probable cause to look for criminal activity. The deputies did not have anything from which to conclude, even assuming that defendant had been the victim of criminal activity, that he was to be found upon his premises. We conclude that the deputies lacked probable cause of criminal activity sufficient to justify warrantless entry upon defendant's premises under the emergency/exigent circumstances exception. Further, even were we to conclude that the deputies did have probable cause to believe criminal activity was afoot, we note that the record does not disclose whether the deputies ever sought a warrant. Securing a warrant before entry is unnecessary if exigent circumstances, in addition to probable cause, exist, i.e., if an emergency exists. By the time they drove to defendant's premises on the morning of June 17, about 12 hours had passed since the deputies had taken defendant's friend's statement. Although the passage of time does not necessarily negate an exigency, and an exigency may be created with the passage of time, it is also true that the passage of time detracts from a claim that an exigency existed. See State v. Beede, 119 N.H. 620, 406 A.2d 125, 131 (1979). Even if department custom might excuse an immediate, nighttime investigation, the deputies did not go to defendant's premises until later the following morning. The passage of the intervening hours significantly dissipated any possible exigency. The passage of substantial time also suggests that the deputies could have tried to secure a warrant in the interval between the friend's report and their entry onto defendant's premises.