Opinion ID: 521939
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Maez' Warrantless Arrest

Text: 22 The Fourth Amendment provides that [t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. In Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 576, 590, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1375, 1382, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), the Supreme Court held that, absent exigent circumstances, police officers may not enter an individual's home without consent to make a warrantless routine felony arrest even with probable cause. 7 In the instant case, police officers, FBI agents and a SWAT team surrounded the Maez' trailer, and with guns pointed at the home, asked him and his family to come out. They did and Maez was taken into custody. 23  The Application of Payton 24 An arrest or seizure occurs when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen.... Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). See also Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 207 n. 6, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2253 n. 6, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979). A show of official authority such that 'a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave'  indicates that an arrest has occurred. Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 502, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1326, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (plurality opinion) (quoting United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (opinion of Justice Stewart joined by Justice Rehnquist)). Examples of circumstances that might indicate a seizure, even when the person did not attempt to leave, would be the threatening presence of several officers, the display of a weapon by an officer ... or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 554, 100 S.Ct. at 1877. [T]he determination of whether an arrest has occurred is not dependent on whether the citizen is formally placed under arrest.... United States v. Hatfield, 815 F.2d 1068, 1071 (6th Cir.1987) (quoting United States v. Hardnett, 804 F.2d 353, 356 (6th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1097, 107 S.Ct. 1318, 94 L.Ed.2d 171 (1987)). 25 The government argues that Maez chose to exit his home. He was arrested in a public place. Brief of Appellee at 14. And the trial court found that Maez was requested to come out of his home, or out of the trailer in which he was living and he was arrested after he came out into the open. II R. 164. We cannot agree in light of the undisputed facts. The Albuquerque SWAT team had surrounded the Maez' trailer with rifles pointed at the home. II R. 39-41; III R. 152. Over the loud speakers the occupants were asked to remove themselves from the mobile home ..., as Officer Whitson testified. II R. 39. Mrs. Maez saw the officers with rifles pointed at the house and her son being searched and handcuffed. She told her husband what had happened. [H]e went to the door and he looked out and he said, [']We have to go outside,['] and he got the baby and we were going outside. III R. 152. Given the presence of some ten officers, the drawn weapons of the SWAT team surrounding the trailer, the use of the loudspeakers, and the frightening circumstances his family faced, a reasonable person would have believed he had to come out of the home and submit to the show of authority. Accordingly, we hold that Maez was arrested while in his home. 8 26 The government strenuously argues that Payton does not apply here because there was no warrantless entry into Maez' home. It says that the Court drew a firm line at the threshold of the home. Brief of Appellee at 11-14. The contention has considerable force because Payton does make repeated references to entry such as nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home.... 445 U.S. at 576, 100 S.Ct. at 1375. The Court said the Fourth Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant. Id. at 590, 100 S.Ct. at 1382. And the Court noted that  'physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.'  Id. at 585, 100 S.Ct. at 1379 (quoting United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 2135, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972)). 27 It is true also that Payton involved cases where police officers, acting with probable cause but without a warrant, entered the defendants' homes to make arrests. In the case of Payton, the officers used crowbars to break open the door and enter the apartment. Payton, 445 U.S. at 576-77, 100 S.Ct. at 1374-75. In the case of Riddick, the officers knocked on the door of the house where Riddick lived, and when his son opened the door, entered and arrested Riddick. Id. at 578, 100 S.Ct. at 1376. In both cases there was physical entry. The government argues that Payton does not condemn the arrest in this case because the officers did not physically enter the trailer. 28 We are persuaded, however, by the decisions of the courts which have applied Payton where a physical crossing of the threshold did not occur and their reasoning that the lack of physical entry alone is not dispositive. Those courts have held that Payton is violated where there is such a show of force that a defendant comes out of a home under coercion and submits to being taken in custody. United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d 890, 893 and n. 1 (9th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1144, 106 S.Ct. 2255, 90 L.Ed.2d 700 (1986); United States v. Morgan, 743 F.2d 1158, 1164 (6th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1061, 105 S.Ct. 2126, 85 L.Ed.2d 490 (1985); Scroggins v. State of Arkansas, 276 Ark. 177, 633 S.W.2d 33, 37 (1982). Cf. United States v. Edmondson, 791 F.2d 1512, 1514-15 (11th Cir.1986) (FBI agents, with weapons drawn, knocked on door, directed occupant to open the door, which he did, and agents arrested him inside). In both Al-Azzawy and Morgan, as in the case now before us, the police had surrounded the defendants' homes and requested their exit by bullhorn. Both courts reasoned that Payton was violated. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d at 893; Morgan, 743 F.2d at 1166. In these circumstances, it is the location of the arrested person, and not the arresting agents, that determines whether an arrest occurs within a home. United States v. Al-Azzawy, 784 F.2d at 893. We agree and think the important point is that in cases of physical intrusion, or coercion to leave the home, as in this case, the privacy of the home is effectively invaded. Commentators have endorsed such a view of Payton where a defendant's coming out of his home resulted from coercion. See 2 LaFave, Search and Seizure Sec. 6.1(e) at 592-94 (2nd ed. 1987). 29 Payton recognizes that at the very core [of the Fourth Amendment] stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion. 445 U.S. at 589-590, 100 S.Ct. at 1381-1382 (quoting Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 505, 511, 81 S.Ct. 679, 682, 5 L.Ed.2d 734 (1961)). While physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed the Court has refused to lock the Fourth Amendment into instances of actual physical trespass. United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 2135, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972). Here the governmental intrusion, without consent and without a warrant, was in the form of extreme coercion which effected the arrest of Maez while he was in his home. We hold that the finding of the trial judge to the contrary is clearly erroneous and that, given the undisputed circumstances here, there was a violation of Maez' Fourth Amendment rights. 30 ii Exigent Circumstances 31 In addition to its argument--which we have rejected--that there was no arrest of Maez in the home, the government says that both probable cause for the arrest and exigent circumstances existed so that there was in any event no violation of Payton. Brief of Appellee at 13, 15. Emergency conditions may make a warrantless search or arrest constitutional where probable cause exists, see Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 749-50, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 2097-98, 80 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984), and here Maez does not dispute the existence of such probable cause. Moreover, Payton recognized that if exigent circumstances exist, the constitutional bar against a suspect's arrest in his home without a warrant does not apply. 445 U.S. at 590, 100 S.Ct. at 1382. Here, however, Maez contends there was no assertion of exigency made in the trial court by the government's law enforcement witnesses or its counsel. Appellant Maez' Reply Brief at 12. 9 We agree and reject the government's argument of exigent circumstances made for the first time on appeal. 32 We cannot accept the government's belated assertion of the exigent circumstances claim for basic reasons. Where police seek to enter a home without a warrant the state bears the burden of proving that sufficient exigency exists. United States v. Aquino, 836 F.2d 1268, 1271 (10th Cir.1988) (citing Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 455, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2032, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971)). That burden is particularly heavy where the police seek to enter a suspect's home or the home of a third person because warrantless seizures inside a home are presumptively unreasonable. Aquino, 836 F.2d at 1271 (quoting Payton, 445 U.S. at 586, 100 S.Ct. at 1380). It is important that the facts on exigent circumstances be developed and that findings be made on them. E.g., United States v. Cuaron, 700 F.2d at 586-91. 33 In the Payton opinion itself, the Supreme Court noted that while it was arguable that the warrantless arrest of Payton might have been justified by exigent circumstances, none of the lower courts had relied on any such justification and accordingly the Court had no occasion to consider such an emergency or dangerous situation. 445 U.S. at 583, 100 S.Ct. at 1378. In Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981), the government argued for the first time on appeal that the record did not clearly show that the petitioner, who was arrested in a third party's house, had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the home. The Court declined to grant the government's request for a remand for factual findings on the issue: 34 ... [T]he Government was initially entitled to defend against petitioner's charge of an unlawful search by asserting that petitioner lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the searched home, or that he consented to the search, or that exigent circumstances justified the entry. The Government, however, may lose its right to raise factual issues of this sort before this Court when it has made contrary assertions in the courts below, when it has acquiesced in contrary findings by those courts, or when it has failed to raise such questions in a timely fashion during the litigation. 35 We conclude that this is such a case. The Magistrate's report on petitioner's suppression motion, which was adopted by the District Court, characterized the issue as whether an arrest warrant was sufficient to justify the search of 'the home of a third person' for the subject of the warrant. App. 12. The Government never sought to correct this characterization on appeal, and instead acquiesced in the District Court's view of petitioner's Fourth Amendment claim. 36 Id. at 209, 101 S.Ct. at 1646 (emphasis added). Here, the government concedes in its brief that it did not argue the issue below. Brief of Appellee, 15-16. In fact, the defendant specifically argued below that exigent circumstances did not exist and the government did not dispute the argument. 10 Hence the district court had no reason to consider the issue. 37 For these reasons, we must reject the government's argument that its claim of exigent circumstances be taken up for the first time on this appeal.