Opinion ID: 1701667
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did trial court err by overruling defendant's motion to suppress the evidentiary use of defendant's jacket?

Text: Defendant's pre-trial motion to suppress stated as grounds: 1) State's failure to give him a receipt for the jacket, 2) violation of § 751.37, The Code, and 3) violation of his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. However desirable such a practice might be as a matter of fairness and recordkeeping, there is no statutory authority requiring issuance of a receipt for items taken in a warrantless seizure. Section 751.13, The Code (officer taking property under a warrant, must on demand, give a receipt). Nor is there any evidence defendant ever demanded a receipt. While State v. Wenks, 200 Iowa 669, 202 N.W. 753 (1925) (holding failure to give receipt does not furnish grounds for suppression) was decided at a time when Amendment 4, United States Constitution, was not applicable to the states, we have not found, nor has defendant cited, any authority to support a theory such a ministerial act rises to constitutional significance. Defendant next asserts a warrantless seizure of his jacket could only be effected under § 751.37, The Code: When a person charged with an offense is supposed by the magistrate before whom he is brought to have upon his person a dangerous weapon, or anything which may be used as evidence of the commission of the offense, the magistrate may direct him to be searched in his presence, and the weapon or evidence to be retained, subject to his order, or the order of the court in which the defendant may be tried. Defendant appears to claim § 751.37 prohibits searches of, and seizures from, an arrested individual's person until he is taken before a magistrate. Such an interpretation would allow prisoners to retain destructible evidence or dangerous weapons until brought before a magistrate. This would violate our rule of statutory construction which requires us, if possible, to avoid conclusions which lead to absurd results. See Steinbeck v. Iowa Dist. Ct. in and for Linn County, 224 N.W.2d 469, 476 (Iowa 1974). We view § 751.37 as providing an additional exception to the rule that ordinarily a warrant is a prerequisite to a valid search and seizure. Cf. Wessling v. Bennett, 290 F.Supp. 511, 518 (N.D.Iowa 1968), aff'd, 410 F.2d 205 (8 Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 396 U.S. 945, 90 S.Ct. 384, 24 L.Ed.2d 248 (1969). Finally, we hold the warrantless seizure of defendant's jacket within two or three hours following his arrest and while he continued in custody did not violate his constitutional rights. This situation falls within the search incident to an arrest exception to the general requirement of a search warrant. United States v. Edwards, 415 U.S. 800, 94 S.Ct. 1234, 39 L.Ed.2d 771 (1974); State v. Wessling, 260 Iowa 1244, 1254-1255, 150 N.W.2d 301, 307 (1967); State v. Raymond, 258 Iowa 1339, 1346-1347, 142 N.W.2d 444, 448-449 (1966).