Opinion ID: 1855982
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Lillibridge Evidence

Text: On March 11, 1987, Hennessey contacted Lillibridge at his place of employment, an enterprise of which Mr. Hubertus is part owner. Lillibridge accompanied Hennessey to the sheriff's office, where he spoke with several other police officers about various crimes, including the Hubertus burglary. In the course of these conversations, Lillibridge implicated Sardeson in several crimes, and, further, in Hennessey's words, Mr. Lillibridge had indicated to me that he had in his possession stolen property that he was not totally aware at first that it was stolen, and that he did not want to be prosecuted for possession of stolen property, at which time I referred this to [an assistant Lancaster County attorney], and he agreed that if Mr. Lillibridge was to bring the property forward and to give information to what knowledge he had, he would not be charged. Hennessey relayed the assistant county attorney's comments to Lillibridge, who then left the sheriff's office. At this time, it was Hennessey's understanding that Lillibridge was going to his residence to gather up the stolen property that he had in his possession and bring [it] back in at 8:15 in the morning. Lillibridge did in fact return to the sheriff's office the following morning with several items of property, including a bracelet later identified as belonging to Mrs. Hubertus, a videocassette recorder, and several other items, including a ski mask, a pair of green coveralls, and a BB pistol. When he brought them in, Lillibridge told police officers where he had gotten some of these items. Sardeson objected to Hennessey's testimony regarding the substance of Lillibridge's statements in this connection, and the record does not disclose precisely where, when, or under what circumstances Lillibridge acquired possession of these items. According to Hennessey, Lillibridge was neither paid nor instructed by police officers to recover evidence from Sardeson's home. In the suppression hearing, Sardeson testified that he had invited Lillibridge into his home on the evening of March 11, 1987, that Lillibridge had been in and out of Sardeson's home that evening, that he did not recall Lillibridge's removing any items from the residence but that Lillibridge might have done so, and that Sardeson had never given Lillibridge a videocassette recorder or a bracelet. According to Sardeson, Lillibridge told him that he had spoken with the police earlier that day, but did not inform Sardeson that he would report back to them the next morning. Lillibridge showed Sardeson no search warrant, nor did he ask Sardeson's permission to look around. Police searches pursuant to warrant were conducted in Eagle and Lincoln on March 12, 1987, and Sardeson was arrested on the same day. Sardeson argues that the police recruited Mr. Lillibridge to search Mr. Sardeson's home and use the fruits of that search to get a search warrant. Evidence from that search was used in the trial against Mr. Sardeson, and all of that evidence should have been suppressed. Brief for appellant at 20. Sardeson's argument fails for at least two reasons. In the first instance, there is nothing of record to establish that Lillibridge turned over to police on March 12, 1987, any item he had not had in his possession prior to his encounter with them on March 11. Sardeson denies that he gave Lillibridge a videocassette recorder or Mrs. Hubertus' bracelet, but this denial alone does not establish that Lillibridge acquired these items surreptitiously in the course of a visit to Sardeson's home. More importantly, under both the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution and article I, § 7, of the Nebraska Constitution, whether a search by a private person is actually a search by the State depends on whether the private person must be regarded as having acted as an instrument or agent of the State. State v. Abdouch, 230 Neb. 929, 434 N.W.2d 317 (1989). The record clearly supports the district court's implicit finding that Lillibridge was not expressly recruited by police investigators to act as their agent for purposes of conducting a warrantless search of Sardeson's residence. Sardeson urges the view that by talking to Lillibridge about the possibility of him being charged, and giving him a way to get out of that charge, that is by bringing good fresh evidence to the police, they made him a police agent. Brief for appellant at 20. It is true that a private person's status as a state agent in a search is not restricted to a search ordered, requested, or initiated by a state official, but may include a search which is a joint endeavor between a private person and a state official. State v. Abdouch, supra . It is also true, however, that some conduct by the police in advancement or inducement of the search must be proven to make out a joint endeavor. See State v. Abdouch, supra . See, also, State v. Jolitz, 231 Neb. 254, 435 N.W.2d 907 (1989). On these facts, the district court was not clearly erroneous in its implicit finding that any search Lillibridge may have conducted of Sardeson's residence was not conducted as a joint endeavor with police officials.