Opinion ID: 1801886
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Parameters of plain-view exception

Text: One of the more broad reaching exceptions to both the probable cause and warrant requirements is a Terry search or frisk. Terry, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868. Once police have reasonable suspicion to stop a person, Terry allows the police to conduct a pat-down search of the person without either probable cause or a warrant. Id. at 24, 88 S.Ct. at 1881. Terry requires only that the officer is justified in believing that the individual whose suspicious behavior he is investigating at close range is armed and presently dangerous to the officer or to others. Id. Because police can conduct such a search without either probable cause or a warrant, however, the Supreme Court specifically has limited it to that which is necessary for the discovery of weapons which might be used to harm the officer or others nearby. Id. at 26, 88 S.Ct. at 1882. More particularly, Terry tells us that searches of the suspect's outer clothing in an attempt to discover weapons that might be used to assault the officer are reasonable. Id. at 29-30, 88 S.Ct. at 1884. Terry does not necessarily limit, however, the fruits of those searches to weapons only. In Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983), the Supreme Court said that police may confiscate any evidence discovered while conducting a legitimate Terry search. Long, 463 U.S. at 1050, 103 S.Ct. at 3481. The Court based this holding on the plain-view doctrine. Id.; see also Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 465, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2037-38, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971) (articulating plain-view seizure exception); United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 235, 105 S.Ct. 675, 683-84, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985) (upholding plain-view seizure in context of Terry stop). In Dickerson, the Court extended this doctrine to those cases in which an officer discovers contraband through the sense of touch during an otherwise lawful search. Dickerson, 508 U.S. at 375, 113 S.Ct. at 2137. The rationale of both plain view and plain touch is that if contraband is left in a place where police can either see or touch it, there has been no invasion of the suspect's privacy beyond that already authorized by the officer's search for weapons. Id. Consequently, police can, under certain circumstances, seize the item without a warrant so long as they have probable cause to believe the item or object is contraband. Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 326, 107 S.Ct. 1149, 1153, 94 L.Ed.2d 347 (1987). As the Court reiterated in Dickerson, however, this right to seize without a warrant an item that was discovered during a legitimate Terry search is not absolute. Instead, the police can seize an item under plain view or plain touch only if three conditions are met: 1) police were lawfully in a position from which they viewed the object, 2) the object's incriminating character was immediately apparent, and 3) the officers had a lawful right of access to the object. Id. at 375, 113 S.Ct. at 2136-37. Because we already decided there was reasonable suspicion to stop G.M., Terry tells us that the police were lawfully in a position from which they viewed the pouch. Consequently, the legitimacy of the seizure and subsequent search of the pouch will turn on whether the pouch's incriminating nature was immediately apparent and whether the officers had a lawful right of access to the pouch. The Supreme Court has stated that if police lack probable cause to believe that an object in plain view is contraband without conducting some further search of the object  i.e., if `its incriminating character [is not] immediately apparent,'  the plain-view doctrine cannot justify its seizure. Dickerson, 508 U.S. at 375, 113 S.Ct. at 2137 (citations omitted); see also Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 107 S.Ct. 1149 (disallowing seizure of stereo equipment in plain view because police lacked probable cause to believe that it had been stolen). Conversely, when evidence revealed in plain view    [gives] probable cause to believe a crime has been committed, the object's incriminating character is immediately apparent and a warrantless seizure is justified. Hensley, 469 U.S. at 235, 105 S.Ct. at 684. This case, however, falls under neither of those constructs. Unlike Hicks, where the police did not have probable cause to believe the stereo equipment was stolen, the police in the case at bar likely had probable cause to believe the pouch contained contraband. And unlike Hensley, where the police officers gained direct view of weapons during a legitimate Terry stop and search, the police in the case at bar did not directly view the contraband until after they had seized the pouch and opened it. Both the district court and court of appeals concluded that because the pouch was in plain view, and because the police officer had probable cause to believe the pouch contained contraband, that this case fit under the Hensley line of cases and justified both a seizure of the pouch and a search of its contents. As the court of appeals stated: Here, the police officers lawfully detained appellant for an investigative Terry stop and the purple pouch was in Officer Carlson's plain view at the time of the stop. Thus, the dispositive issue is whether the police had probable cause to believe the pouch contained contraband at the time it was seized. In re Welfare of G. (NMN) M., 542 N.W.2d 54, 58 (Minn.App.1996) (emphasis added). This is a mistaken interpretation of the plain-view doctrine, however. Under the plain-view exception to the warrant requirement, a police officer can seize an object in plain view without a warrant only if the object's incriminating character is immediately apparent. [4] In this case, the object in plain view was the pouch, not the contraband. Consequently, the plain-view exception will apply only if the pouch's incriminating nature was immediately apparent. See United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 812, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 2166, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982) (stating that closed opaque containers are ordinarily fully protected). The court of appeals correctly stated that an object's incriminating nature becomes immediately apparent when the police have probable cause to believe an object in plain view is contraband without conducting further search of the object. Welfare of G. (NMN) M., 542 N.W.2d at 58. Although it is possible that the police had probable cause to believe that the pouch contained contraband, that belief came from an informant's tip and subsequent evasive answers from G.M. [5] In other words, the police's probable cause was not based upon what the officers saw in plain view, but upon what they heard from both the informant and G.M. Although the police saw the pouch, they never saw the contraband inside the pouch, and consequently the police cannot justify their warrantless seizure of the pouch on the belief that the incriminating nature of the pouch was immediately apparent. [6] As for the contents of a container, the mere fact that the container itself is in plain view provides no basis for a warrantless seizure and search of it, even assuming probable cause as to the contents. But if the contents themselves are in plain view within an accessible container, then there exists no reasonable expectation of privacy as to those contents and thus no need for a warrant to open the container. 1 Wayne R. Lafave, Search and Seizure § 2.2(a), at 401-02 (3rd ed.1996); see also United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 11, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 2483, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977) (holding that warrantless search of footlocker was unreasonable under Fourth Amendment). Such a distinction is critical in that plain view is based upon the fact that the defendant left the contraband in a place where he or she had no expectation of privacy. Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 103 S.Ct. 1535, 75 L.Ed.2d 502 (1983) (what is required is a degree of certainty that is equivalent to the plain view of the heroin itself). In the case at bar, G.M. placed the contraband inside an opaque bag. It is true that such an expectation of privacy could have been defeated by a pat-down search of the pouch, see Dickerson, 508 U.S. at 377, 113 S.Ct. at 2137-38 (Stevens, J., concurring), but the police only conducted such a search after G.M. had handed them the pouch. Consequently, this case falls under Chadwick and not Dickerson or the other line of plain-view or plain-touch cases. This means police could not seize [7] the pouch unless they had both probable cause and a warrant, or, in the alternative, probable cause and a well-delineated exception to the warrant requirement other than plain view.