Opinion ID: 2404406
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Field Test

Text: The employees of Federal Express did not implicate the Fourth Amendment when they opened the package and inspected its contents because the constitutional prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures applies only to governmental conduct. Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 475, 41 S.Ct. 574, 576, 65 L.Ed. 1048, 1051 (1921). Relying on Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. 649, 657, 100 S.Ct. 2395, 2402, 65 L.Ed.2d 410, 418 (1980), however, defendant contends that the DEA agent's field test of the powdery substance in the package was such a significant expansion of the private search that it constituted a separate governmental search. He argues, therefore, that the agent should have obtained a warrant before conducting the field test. In Walter, cartons containing pornographic film were mistakenly delivered to a company whose name was similar to that of the addressee. Suggestive drawings and explicit descriptions of the contents were located on the exterior of the cartons. A company employee opened several cartons and unsuccessfully attempted to determine the contents of the enclosed film by holding it up to the light. The employee then contacted agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who seized the cartons and, without a warrant, viewed the films by means of a projector. Subsequently, several individuals were convicted on obscenity charges relating to the interstate shipment of the films. The defendants appealed the denial of their motion to suppress, but the federal court of appeals upheld the convictions. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, the defendants argued that the Fourth Amendment required the agents to obtain a warrant before they screened the films. The Court, in a plurality opinion, determined that the unauthorized exhibition of the films constituted an unreasonable invasion of their owner's protected interest in privacy. It was a search; there was no warrant; the owner had not consented; and there were no exigent circumstances. Id. at 654, 100 S.Ct. at 2400, 65 L.Ed.2d at 416. Finding that the FBI agents lawfully possessed the cartons of films, the Court noted that an officer's authority to possess a package is distinct from his authority to examine its contents. Id. The Court, therefore, found that the agents could seize the cartons and examine their contents to the extent that the private party had previously done. The projection of the films, however, was a significant expansion of the private search. Id. at 657, 100 S.Ct. at 2402, 65 L.Ed.2d at 418. It was a separate governmental search that was not supported by any exigency, or by a warrant even though one could have easily been obtained. Id. Accordingly, the Court sustained the defendants' objection to admission of the evidence. The defendant analogizes the DEA agent's field test of the cocaine to the projection of the film in Walter. He asserts, therefore, that a warrant was required. Before we address this argument, however, we must determine whether Walter applies to this case. In Walter, the Court found that the established requirement that government agents obtain warrants prior to opening sealed packages in the mail is especially important when the packages contain books or other materials arguably protected by the First Amendment, and when the basis for the seizure is disapproval of the message contained therein   . Walter, 447 U.S. at 655, 100 S.Ct. at 2401, 65 L.Ed.2d at 417. Citing United States v. Barry, 673 F.2d 912 (6th Cir.1982), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 103 S.Ct. 238, 74 L.Ed.2d 188 (1982) and People v. Adler, 50 N.Y.2d 730, 409 N.E.2d 888, 431 N.Y.S.2d 412, cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1014, 101 S.Ct. 573, 66 L.Ed.2d 473 (1980), the state asserts that the Walter Court's rationale concerning significant governmental expansions of private searches is limited to searches that implicate First Amendment rights. In Adler an airline employee in Los Angeles became suspicious of an individual who had delivered a package for shipment to New York. The employee X-rayed the package, opened it, and discovered a large quantity of pills. He then contacted a DEA agent who took the package and subjected the pills to laboratory analysis. After discovering that the pills were amphetamines and barbiturates, the agent inscribed his initials on the package and returned it to the airline for shipment to New York. Police officers in New York seized the package, analyzed its contents, and instructed airline employees to inform anyone who inquired about the package that it had been temporarily lost in shipment. Subsequently, the defendant claimed the package and was immediately arrested. People v. Adler, 50 N.Y.2d at 734-35, 409 N.E.2d at 890, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 414. At trial, the defendant successfully challenged the validity of the search conducted by the New York police officer. The appellate division, however, reversed this ruling because the court found that the actions of the police in New York were merely a continuation of the lawful search and seizure in Los Angeles. Id. at 735-36, 409 N.E.2d at 890, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 414. On appeal, the New York Court of Appeals determined that when [c]onsidered as a search discrete from that in Los Angeles, the New York police action was violative of the Fourth Amendment proscription against warrantless searches. Id. at 736, 409 N.E.2d at 890, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 414. The Adler court, however, found that the contraband had been discovered in the course of the airline employee's inspection of the package and its contents in Los Angeles. Furthermore, the court determined that [t]he police did not go beyond the private search when they examined the contents of the package. Id. at 737, 409 N.E.2d at 891, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 416. Reasoning that the nature of the drugs was reasonably self-evident, the New York court distinguished the film projection in Walter from the laboratory analysis of the pills in Adler. Id. at 737-38 n. 4, 409 N.E.2d at 891 n. 4, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 416 n. 4. Noting that the search in Walter affected First Amendment rights, the court refused to impose a warrant requirement for laboratory analysis on legally seized drugs. We are not persuaded by defendant's suggestion that the New York Court of Appeals interpreted Walter as applying only to searches that involve First Amendment considerations. Rather, we believe that the Adler court emphasized the factual distinctions between the searches in both cases. The court might have deemed the limitations of Walter more applicable if it had found that the criminal nature of the capsules was not reasonably self-evident. Instead, the court determined that the capsules obviously were contraband and that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the capsules. Adler, 50 N.Y.2d at 737-38 n. 4, 409 N.E.2d at 891 n. 4, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 416 n. 4. We refuse, at this juncture, to comment on the propriety of this holding. Rather, we analyze it only to indicate that the New York court would not have addressed the issue concerning the degree of intrusion into privacy interests if the court had interpreted Walter as utterly inapposite to the facts in Adler. Similarly, we are not persuaded by the interpretation of Walter set forth by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in United States v. Barry, supra . Finding that  Walter turned on the fact that the material seized was protected by the First Amendment, (emphasis added), the court held that chemical analysis of pills did not intrude upon protected privacy interests to the extent that the viewing of films did in Walter. United States v. Barry, 673 F.2d at 920. Again, we note that the Sixth Circuit court need not have addressed the degree of intrusion into protected privacy interests if the First Amendment aspect was the sole determinative fact in Walter. Moreover, the Barry court, like the Adler court, neglected to recognize that in Walter Justice Stewart mentioned the First Amendment implications of the search only when emphasizing that an officer's authority to possess a package is distinct from his authority to examine its contents. Walter, 447 U.S. at 654, 100 S.Ct. at 2400, 65 L.Ed.2d at 416; see 2 LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 5.5 at 86 (1983 Supp.). Indeed, Justice Stewart cited Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979), and United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), in support of this proposition. These cases involved warrantless searches that in no way implicated First Amendment rights. Furthermore, defendant correctly points out that Justice Stevens analogized the opening of a closed container to expose boxes of film to the opening of a locked suitcase to expose a gun case. See Walter, 447 U.S. at 658 n. 12, 100 S.Ct. at 2402 n. 12, 65 L.Ed.2d at 419 n. 12. These factors militate against an interpretation of Walter, that limits the application of the Court's rationale to cases in which Fourth and First Amendment rights are intertwined. We agree with the assertion that  Walter rested on the [F]ourth [A]mendment, not the [F]irst [A]mendment. United States v. Jacobsen, 683 F.2d 296, 300 n. 4 (8th Cir.1982), cert. granted, ___ U.S. ___, 103 S.Ct. 1271, 75 L.Ed.2d 493 (1983). Accordingly, we hold that the significant expansion rationale of Walter applies in this case. [1] Our review of the trial justice's determination of defendant's motion to suppress, however, leads us to conclude that he failed to apply the precepts of Walter to the DEA agent's field test of the cocaine. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, defendant analogized the field test to the conduct of the FBI agents in Walter. The trial justice posited that [t]he question apparently is whether or not exigent circumstances existed for the government to search and conduct a field test, and I have to assume and infer   that certainly the government took from the envelope certain substances to make the examination or field test. So there was no intrusion. The question is whether or not exigent circumstances existed.  (Emphasis added.) The trial justice further characterized the issue before him as a question of whether or not the DEA had sufficient opportunity to obtain a warrant to search the package between the time that the Federal Express employee opened the package and the time that the DEA agent conducted a field test on its contents. Denying the motion to suppress, the trial justice found that exigent circumstances did permit, in this case, the initial intrusion into the envelope, and the initial examination of the substance contained therein.    [T]he warrantless search was made with sufficient probable cause, and exigent circumstances did exist to permit the police to make such a search and examination without the benefit of a Court authorized warrant. (Emphasis added.) Our review of the trial justice's prefatory statements and his ruling on the motion to suppress compels us to conclude that he misapprehended the principles of Walter. Rather than address defendant's contention that the field test constituted a significant expansion of the private search, the trial justice characterized the various steps in the investigative process as intrusions, examinations, and searches. We cannot ascertain, therefore, whether or not the trial justice found that the field test was an independent governmental search prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, he correctly determined that the private search was not constitutionally proscribed. Yet he subsequently applied an exigent-circumstances rationale to validate the actions of both the Federal Express employees and the government agent. Moreover, the state needed to invoke one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement to justify the field test only if the trial justice first determined that the test was a significant expansion of the private search. We find that the trial justice's ruling concerning defendant's Fourth Amendment challenge to the field test is inadequately definitive for our review. Accordingly, we must remand the case and instruct the trial justice to address the question of whether the DEA agent's field test was a significant expansion of the lawful private search. In determining whether the field test constituted a significant expansion of the private search, the trial justice should consider several factors: (1) the experience and expertise, if any, of the agent who first viewed the contents of the plastic bag after the private search; (2) the question of whether in light of the agent's expertise he formed an opinion with a reasonable degree of certainty concerning the nature of the substance without a field test; (3) the extent of the intrusion required in order to perform the field test; and (4) the question of whether such intrusion impinged upon any further expectation of privacy that remained after the exposure of the contents by private persons. Having considered these factors in the context of evidence already presented in the case and such further evidence as the court may deem relevant and necessary, the court may determine whether the agent's application of a field test to the discovered substance was a significant expansion of the private search. If the trial justice finds that the field test was a significant expansion of the private search and thus was subject to Fourth Amendment requirements, he should then determine whether this further search was valid under one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. The trial justice applied the exigent-circumstances exception to the field test. On appeal, the state reasserts this justification and further contends that the plain-view doctrine validates the field test if the test constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. Because we seek to guide the parties and the trial justice, we must address the applicability of both exceptions to the facts before us.
The trial justice determined that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless field test because of the nature of the substance, because of the mobility of the envelope   , and because it would certainly be likely [that] the person to whom the envelope had been sent might become suspicious if in fact the envelope did not arrive on time   . The defendant contends that no exigent circumstances existed; there was no possibility that the evidence would be destroyed or disappear, the substance did not appear to be dangerous, and there was no factual support for the notion that the addressee would have fled if the delivery of the package had been delayed. Moreover, defendant asserts that the exigencies cited by the state could not justify a warrantless search in this case because the package and its contents were under the exclusive control of the government at the time of the field test. We agree. The exigent-circumstances exception to the warrant requirement, as it relates to warrantless searches of personal effects such as luggage and parcels in the mail, is controlled by principles that the Supreme Court enunciated in United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), and Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979). In Chadwick the Court held that once government officials exercise exclusive control over containers, luggage or repositories of personal effects, they must obtain warrants to conduct searches. Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 15, 97 S.Ct. at 2485, 53 L.Ed.2d at 551. The Court reaffirmed this principle in Sanders by applying it to the warrantless search of a suitcase that was properly seized from an automobile. See Sanders, 442 U.S. at 763-64, 99 S.Ct. at 2593, 61 L.Ed.2d at 244-45. Clearly, the Court will uphold such a search if the possibility exists that the item to be searched poses an imminent danger to the police or to the public. Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 15 n. 9, 97 S.Ct. at 2485 n. 9, 53 L.Ed.2d at 551 n. 9. Such an exigency did not exist in this case. Without question, when the DEA agent conducted the field test, he had obtained exclusive control over the contents of the package. See Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 13, 97 S.Ct. at 2484, 53 L.Ed.2d at 549. [2] The trial justice found that the exigencies of mobility and the possibility of flight justified the warrantless test. The state argues that this ruling was not clearly wrong. Contending that we should accept the possibility-of-flight rationale, the state claims that the delayed arrival of the package in Rhode Island would have alerted defendant that police had discovered the presence of contraband. The state's reliance on United States v. Ford, 525 F.2d 1308 (10th Cir.1975), however, is misplaced. As Professor LaFave has pointed out, Ford was a pre- Chadwick case in which the Tenth Circuit Court applied the principles of Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970). See 2 LaFave, § 5.5 at 368-69 (1978). Chambers, however, is an automobile exception case. This exception to the warrant requirement emanated from the opinion of the Court in Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925), and was most recently explicated in United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982). The bases for the exception are the inherent mobility of the automobile and the diminished expectation of privacy that individuals have in their automobiles. In Chadwick and Sanders, however, the Court refused to apply the principles of the automobile-exception cases to warrantless searches of personal effects, such as the contents of the package in this case. See Sanders, 442 U.S. at 763-65, 99 S.Ct. at 2593-94, 61 L.Ed.2d at 244-46; Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 12, 97 S.Ct. at 2484, 53 L.Ed.2d at 548-49; see also Ross, 456 U.S. at 809-811, 102 S.Ct. at 2165, 72 L.Ed.2d at 584 ( Chadwick Court squarely rejected extension of automobile-exception rationale to movable containers). Chadwick and Sanders, therefore, prohibit the state from utilizing the possibility of flight or the inherent mobility of a parcel in the mail after that mobility has been interdicted by seizure as exigencies to justify the warrantless field test in this case. Indeed, a case that the state relies upon to assert that Walter is inapplicable here supports this very proposition. Although the New York court in People v. Adler determined that the challenged governmental conduct was coextensive with the private search, the court first addressed the propriety of the government's conduct when viewed as an independent search. The court rejected the state's assertion of the possibility of flight as an exigent circumstance to justify the warrantless search. Further, the court held that [h]owever, assuming that the seizure of the package could be justified by some exigency existing in New York, the warrantless search of the package following the seizure was improper. At that point, no demanding circumstances existed to justify an immediate search, for the property there was within the control of the police. Adler, 50 N.Y.2d at 736, 409 N.E.2d at 890, 431 N.Y.S.2d at 415. The Adler court therefore recognized that an officer's authority to possess a package is distinct from his authority to examine its contents. Walter, 447 U.S. at 654, 100 S.Ct. at 2400, 65 L.Ed.2d at 416. Assuming that the field test was a significant expansion of the private search, absent exigent circumstances, a warrant was required in order to authorize such further interferences with the right to privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. See, e.g., Chadwick, 433 U.S. at 14-16, 97 S.Ct. at 2485-86, 53 L.Ed.2d at 550-51; United States v. Painter, 480 F. Supp. 282, 284-85 (W.D.Mo. 1979); State v. Randall, 116 Ariz. 371, 372-73, 569 P.2d 313, 315-16 (Ct. App. 1977). See generally 1 Ringel, Searches & Seizures, Arrests and Confessions § 10.3 at 10-6 and 10-6.1 (1982) (discussing necessity for warrant prior to search of personal luggage, boxes, and closed containers under police custody). We are of the opinion that if the trial justice determines on remand that the field test was a significant expansion of a private search, he should direct the state to address whether exigent circumstances, as delineated by the Supreme Court in Chadwick and Sanders, justified the absence of a warrant.
As an alternative to exigent circumstances, the state sets forth the plain-view doctrine to validate the warrantless field test. We reject this contention for the following reasons: (1) the discovery of the suspected cocaine was not inadvertent; (2) the plain-view doctrine justifies warrantless seizures of evidence; and (3) even if the plain-view doctrine validated the warrantless seizure of the suspected cocaine, a warrant was required for police to exceed the scope of the private search. The Supreme Court explained the rationale for the plain-view doctrine in Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 464-73, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2037-42, 29 L.Ed.2d 564, 581-87 (1971). This court has interpreted Coolidge as allowing a police officer to seize evidence that is in plain view when (1) the officer was lawfully in the position that allowed him to see the evidence, (2) the officer discovered the evidence inadvertently, and (3) it was immediately apparent to the officer that the object was evidence of criminality. See, e.g., State v. Robalewski, R.I., 418 A.2d 817, 824 (1980); State v. Marshall, 120 R.I. 306, 310, 387 A.2d 1046, 1048 (1978); State v. Carillo, 113 R.I. 32, 36, 317 A.2d 449, 452 (1974); accord United States v. Roberts, 644 F.2d 683, 686 (8th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 973, 102 S.Ct. 523, 70 L.Ed.2d 392 (1981); United States v. Block, 522 F. Supp. 451, 455 (D.Mass. 1981). The DEA agent who went to the Federal Express office in Seattle certainly was lawfully on the premises. Concerning the immediately apparent requirement of the doctrine, [3] however, defendant contends that no evidence was introduced concerning the officer's immediate awareness of the white powder's incriminatory nature. The state counters that this requirement does not require absolute certainty and that, in any event, the agent's act of conducting a field test on the powder creates an inference that he was aware of the substance's incriminating nature. We need not address this issue because the fatal defect to the applicability of the plain-view doctrine in this case arises from the inadvertence requirement of the doctrine. The DEA agent who conducted the field test certainly did not inadvertently discover what he perceived to be contraband. The Federal Express employees, having previously discovered the white powder, expressly directed the agent to its location. He then examined it and conducted the field test. Admittedly, there has been controversy among state and federal courts concerning whether inadvertence is a necessary prerequisite for the operation of the plain-view doctrine. See Texas v. Brown, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 103 S.Ct. 1535, 1544, 75 L.Ed.2d 502 (1983) (White, J. concurring); 2 LaFave, § 6.7 at 488-91; 1 Ringel, § 6.5 at 6-22 to 6-25. Compare North v. Superior Court, 8 Cal.3d 301, 307-08, 502 P.2d 1305, 1308-09, 104 Cal. Rptr. 833, 836-37 (1972) and State v. Pontier, 95 Idaho 707, 712, 518 P.2d 969, 974 (1974) (inadvertence not a requirement) with United States v. Berenguer, 562 F.2d 206, 210 (2d Cir.1977) and State v. Robalewski, 418 A.2d at 824 (discovery must be inadvertent). As we have stated, we subscribe to the position that a plain-view discovery of incriminating evidence must be made inadvertently. Until the United States Supreme Court, by a majority of its members, modifies the teachings of Coolidge, we perceive no reason for us to depart from the inadvertence requirement of the plain-view doctrine. Even if we were persuaded that such a course was justified, the doctrine would be inapplicable in the case for another, equally compelling reason. The plain-view doctrine validates the warrantless seizure of evidence. See Coolidge, 403 U.S. at 464-66, 91 S.Ct. at 2037-38, 29 L.Ed.2d at 581-83. If the police search the seized item without a warrant, they must set forth further justification. In this case, defendant challenges the field test as an unlawful, warrantless Fourth Amendment search. The defendant does not claim that the DEA agent would have been acting unlawfully had he merely seized the package. Relying on the Sixth Circuit court's opinion in United States v. Rodriguez, 596 F.2d 169 (6th Cir.1979), the state, asserts, however, that the plain-view doctrine justified the field test of the white powder. In Rodriguez, the defendant claimed that the warrantless seizure of the package containing the suspected contraband was unconstitutional and that the field test was an independent search that was not justified by any exception to the warrant requirement. The court found that [a]n object in plain view may be inspected and seized without a warrant if certain requirements are met. Furthermore, the court determined that police officers do not need a warrant to seize the package `if the incriminating nature of the object is immediately apparent' from plain view observation. Id. at 175. Consequently, the Rodriguez court held that the seizure of the package by the police was permissible under the `plain view' exception to the warrant requirement. Id. at 172. This language illustrates that it is unclear whether or not the Sixth Circuit court squarely addressed the validity of the field test. The court seemingly limited its inquiry to the constitutionality of only the seizure. We therefore find the court's rationale inconclusive. Moreover, Rodriguez was decided prior to the opinion of the Supreme Court in Walter. Finding that the government's conduct significantly expanded the private search, Justice Stevens first addressed the effect of the plain-view doctrine. He wrote: Even though some circumstances  for example, if the results of the private search are in plain view when materials are turned over to the Government  may justify the Government's reexamination of the materials, surely the Government may not exceed the scope of the private search unless it has the right to make an independent search. Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. at 657, 100 S.Ct. at 2402, 65 L.Ed.2d at 418. [4] In the case before us, the DEA agent could properly reexamine the contents of the package to the extent that they were exposed by the search previously conducted by the Federal Express employees. He could not, however, significantly expand the scope of the private search unless he obtained a warrant. Accordingly, we hold that the state cannot set forth the plain-view doctrine to justify conduct that may constitute a significant expansion of the private search.