Opinion ID: 3035889
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Searching Beyond the Warrant

Text: The majority relies on Muehler v. Mena, Michigan v. Summers, and Ganwich v. Knapp1 to describe the limits within which police have authority to detain incidental to executing a search warrant. Muehler held that the police “authority to detain incident to a search is categorical; it does not depend on the quantum of proof justifying detention or the extent of the intrusion to be imposed by the seizure.” Muehler v. Mena, 125 S. Ct. 1465, 1470 (2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). The majority derives from this trio of cases its position that “the duration of a detention may be coextensive with the 1 125 S. Ct. 1465 (2005); 452 U.S. 692 (1981); 319 F.3d 1115 (9th Cir. 2003). 962 DAWSON v. CITY OF SEATTLE period of a search, and require no further justification” as long as that detention is conducted in a reasonable manner. Majority at 949. All that may be true, but a “reasonable detention” does not allow search for items beyond those authorized by the warrant. Nor does it allow for detention beyond that necessary to conduct the authorized search (for evidence of health code violations, in this instance).2 2 The warrant obtained by DPH inspectors to search 6418 Brooklyn Ave NE reads as follows: The Seattle-King County Department of Public Health has applied for a Health Code Inspection Warrant to conduct a health code inspection of the premises at 6418 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, Washington 98115, including the shack in the rear yard, other outbuildings on the premises and any and all housing units that may be contained therein. . . . NOW, THEREFORE, you are hereby commanded to enter the premises at 6418 Brooklyn Ave NE, Seattle, Washington to inspect the exterior, including but not limited to, common areas, yards, crawlspaces, porches, basement, attic and any out buildings, appliances, on the premises, specifically including the shack in the rear yard of the property that serves as a living unit. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that you search inside the premises, including the shack in the rear yard, in areas where violations may exist including but not limited to, any individual dwelling units or apartments or rooms or other housing units that may exist inside the main building, and in the main building and in the shack, in cabinets, closets, under furniture, inside furniture, inside appliances, in common areas, storage spaces, basements and attics. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that you search for evidence of violations of the Seattle Municipal Health Code and seize any evidence of such violations, including photographs and any other evidence of filth, debris, rodent or insect infestation. . . . The purpose of the inspection is to discover violations of the Seattle Municipal Health Code. . . . You may obtain whatever assistance is necessary and proper under the circumstances. DAWSON v. CITY OF SEATTLE 963 Muehler and Ganwich permit a detention incident to the execution of a search warrant, to protect the officers and inspectors executing that warrant. These cases do not support a search for items outside the scope of the warrant — in essence, a search incident to the detention. It was “reasonable” for the police to detain the residents in a single room while the DPH inspectors executed their search warrant. It was “reasonable” to frisk the residents at the outset of that detention. It was not “reasonable” to question boarders as to whether there were drugs or weapons in their rooms or to search their rooms for drugs or weapons as part of this detention. Such searches are insupportable under Muehler and Ganwich. The majority argues that questioning about drugs is “reasonable” because knowing whether the detained residents are drug users will alert the police to their potential for violent behavior; the majority reasons that knowing whether there are weapons present in boarders’ rooms is “reasonable” to protect police officers and DPH inspectors. Majority at 954. The majority’s opinion allows not just the “reasonable” detention of the residents incident to the execution of the inspection warrant, as permitted by Ganwich and Muehler, but also the warrantless search for drugs and weapons, drugs and weapons from which the residents were physically isolated by virtue of their detention. The officer, inspector, and resident safety justifications cannot be supported on this basis. Permission for the search incident to detention here expands Ganwich and Muehler, unjustifiably, and runs roughshod over the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments in the process. I cannot support it. Contrary to the majority’s view of the evidence, that the police simply accompanied DPH personnel during their search to provide continued security, taking the evidence in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs indicates that the police were themselves involved in searching for things outside the scope of the warrant. As the majority opinion indicates, Plaintiff Shelly Sogga testified by declaration that about an hour and a half into the 964 DAWSON v. CITY OF SEATTLE inspection of 6418, a police officer escorted her from the detention room. She was taken to the basement bathroom where that officer told her that he had found drug paraphernalia in her room. Sogga was placed under arrest and read her rights. The police continued to question Sogga about the contents of her room, and in so doing, referred to a letter from her mother, which Sogga believed the police had read. The police told her to sign a consent form. When she asked to speak to a lawyer, the police told her that she “could talk to one from jail” and said that, if she refused to give her consent, she would go to jail. Sogga’s Affidavit. She signed the consent form. When she was allowed to return to her room twenty minutes later, she found that the police had searched her entire room, rifling through personal papers and leaving intimate photos in full view. The majority distinguishes this case from Ganwich v. Knapp. Not so! Sogga’s story evokes the very issues upon which Judge Gould rested his opinion in Ganwich v. Knapp, where the police detained employees in a waiting room and did not release them until they consented to interrogation. 319 F.3d 1115, 1120-1121 (9th Cir. 2003). While the majority may argue that finding the drug paraphernalia gave the police probable cause to question Sogga, it is not clear how the police came upon this drug paraphernalia. The majority cites Officers Jamieson’s and Zylack’s police report which states that “[d]uring the search of the premises, several items of narcotics paraphernalia were observed in plain view by officers in a room that is occupied by S/Sogga.” SPD Incident Report, Sept. 30, 1999. Sogga testified that the magic mushrooms were in a silver container on the table. Sogga Deposition at 84, June 9, 2003. The standard of review, requiring us to take the facts in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, is determinative here. We must credit Sogga’s version of the facts, in which the police had read through a personal letter from her mother, indicating that they were searching, not simply clearing the rooms of people to make them safe, and in which the magic mushrooms were in a container. Viewing the facts in DAWSON v. CITY OF SEATTLE 965 the light most favorable to plaintiffs, the police were engaged in searching beyond the scope of the warrant; at the least, there is a genuine question of fact on this issue. Plaintiff Jeri Dawson, a resident of 6420, testified by declaration that the police knocked on her door and told her to proceed to the back yard. She was not given time to put on her shoes. Once she reached the back yard, a police officer asked for her identification, which she had left in her room; the officer escorted her back to her room to retrieve her identification. When she entered her room, she found two SPD officers “apparently searching it.” Dawson Affidavit. One “appeared to be looking into [her] closet and the other was standing next to the table that contained [her] personal papers, jewelry making materials, and medication.” Again, the police did not permit Dawson to put on shoes, despite the presence of broken glass near the patio where she would be detained. When the inspection of 6420 ended and Dawson was permitted to leave the back yard, she returned to her room to find that all of her personal papers had been rearranged, as had her medications. Once the police had determined that no one was left in the rooms, they had finished the search necessary to effectuate the detention of residents that would protect DPH inspectors, SPD officers, and the residents. At that point, the warrant gave DPH Inspectors authority to search for the items specified in the warrant. Continued SPD searches of individual boarders’ rooms for other than the items listed in the warrant was a violation of their constitutional rights. The majority’s justification for searches for weapons and drugs is not supportable under Muehler or Ganwich.