Court Opinion

ID: 9748292
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:58:59.453663+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:34.040190
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Judge,
dissenting.
The majority recognizes that exigent circumstances may permit a warrantless search and seizure. I believe the police were faced with exigent circumstances in this case. It will be remembered, as the majority opinion indicates, that Stackhouse had been identified from a photograph as the perpetrator of the crime. A tracking dog had followed his trail from the scene of the crime to his place of residence. Stackhouse answered the door to the police at that residence. He falsely identified himself to the police as James Lewis. His foster sister confirmed this identification. The police learned that James Lewis was Stackhouse’s alias and that arrest warrants were outstanding for Stackhouse pertaining to unrelated armed robberies at the same Holiday Inn. They then returned to the residence to serve the warrants. At that time the foster sister denied that Stack-house was present. In fact he was hiding in the attic. I submit that if the foster sister would lie about his identity and then lie about his presence, it was reasonable on the part of the police officers to believe that she would destroy or secrete elsewhere any evidence pertaining to the crime which might be on the premises.
2 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 6.5(b), at 438 (1978), states, “Notwithstanding the claim in Vale [v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970),] that exceptions to the warrant *223requirement are ‘specifically established and well-delineated,’ it is closer to the truth to say that the ‘emergency circumstances exception is “established,” but it has not been “well delineated,” ’ ” citing United States v. Rubin, 474 F.2d 262 (3d Cir.), cert, denied, 414 U.S. 833, 94 S.Ct. 173, 38 L.Ed.2d 68 (1973). Professor LaFave had earlier commented, “[I]t is suggested . . . that the Vale formulation does not encompass all truly exigent circumstances because it does not speak of threatened destruction of evidence . . . . ” Id. at 437. He goes on to comment:
“Generally, it may be said that the lower courts have not accepted the Vale formulation as controlling. They have been inclined to state the exception in broader terms, such as a ‘great likelihood that the evidence will be destroyed or removed before a warrant can be obtained,’ that the evidence is ‘threatened with imminent removal or destruction,’ or that the police ‘reasonably conclude that the evidence will be destroyed or removed before they can secure a search warrant.’ The most careful treatment of this point appears in United States v. Rubin, where the court, after noting the broader dictum in Johnson [v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948) ], McDonald [v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 69 S.Ct. 191, 93 L.Ed. 153 (1948)], and [United States v.] Jeffers, [342 U.S. 48, 72 S.Ct. 93, 96 L.Ed. 59 (1951),] concluded that the Vale language should not be taken too seriously in light of the Court’s assumption that not even a threat of destruction was present.” Id. at 438-39.
In Rubin the court said, after referring to Vale:
“Although the Court had always spoken of ‘threatened’ destruction or removal of evidence in previous cases involving the emergency exception, in Vale, 399 U.S. at 35, 90 S.Ct. 1969 [at 1972, 26 L.Ed.2d 409], it spoke for the first time of goods ‘in the process of destruction.’ Although the language might suggest that the emergency exception must be construed to require knowledge that the evidence is actually being removed or destroyed, the omission of a single word should not be given such signifi*224canee, especially in light of the facts in Vale.... The facts did not support a belief by the arresting officers that there was even a ‘threatened’ destruction or removal of the narcotics. No exigent circumstances justifying the search existed.” 474 F.2d at 267.
After that which I have previously quoted from his work, LaFave goes on to state:
“The court in Rubin then formulates this test:
When Government agents, however, have probable cause to believe contraband is present and, in addition, based on the surrounding circumstances of the information at hand, they reasonably conclude that the evidence will be destroyed or removed before they can secure a search warrant, a warrantless search is justified. The emergency circumstances will vary from case to case, and the inherent necessities of the situation at the time must be scrutinized. Circumstances which have seemed relevant to courts include (1) the degree of urgency involved and the amount of time necessary to obtain a warrant * * *; (2) reasonable belief that the contraband is about to be removed * * *; (3) the possibility of danger to police officers guarding the site of the contraband while a search warrant is sought * * *; (4) information indicating the possessors of the contraband are aware that the police are on their trail * * *; and (5) the ready destructibility of the contraband and the knowledge ‘that efforts to dispose of narcotics and to escape are characteristic behavior of persons engaged in the narcotics traffic.’ [474 F.2d at 268-69]
“It is useful to take note of the facts which the court in Rubin found were sufficient to meet this test, for they serve as a meaningful vehicle for exploring several aspects of the emergency exception. Customs agents received reliable information that a bronze statue containing a large shipment of illicit drugs would be shipped to a hospital in a certain area. Agents were posted at the airport and waterfront, and finally a crate answering the general description given by the informant arrived at the *225airport from abroad. It was inspected and found to contain narcotics. Agents observed one Agnes pick up the crate and take it to a certain address, where it was unloaded at about 5 p.m. After one agent was dispatched to secure a search warrant, Agnes left the premises in his car but without the crate. He was tailed for a short distance, but when his evasive actions led agents to believe he was aware of the tail, they arrested him. When he was placed under arrest about six blocks from the house in question, he yelled to spectators to call his brother. At this point the agents, fearing disposal of the narcotics if they waited for the search warrant, entered the house and searched for and seized the narcotics.” Id. at 439-40.
The Third Circuit pointed out in Rubin, “The Supreme Court has never spoken in a case such as this one where the searching officers know there is in fact a large quantity of contraband narcotics in a dwelling, and they are apprehensive that it may be removed or destroyed.” 474 F.2d at 268. In this case the searching officers did not know that incriminating evidence was present but there certainly was probable cause for such a belief. It thus is significant that in Rubin the court said, “We find no requirement that officers must know of the removal or destruction in order to make the search.” Id.
The suggestion may be made that the police officers here could have detained the foster sister and impounded, so to speak, the premises while they sought a search warrant. Before Vale, 399 U.S. 30, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 was decided, no less an authority than Erwin N. Griswold, then Solicitor General of the United States, said in Criminal Procedure, 1969 — Is It A Means Or An End?, 29 Md.L.Rev. 307, 317 (1969):
“Does the police officer have any power to maintain the status quo while he, or a colleague of his, is taking the time necessary to draw up a sufficient affidavit to support an application for a search warrant, and then finding a magistrate, submitting the application to him, obtaining *226the search warrant if it is issued, and then bringing it to the place where the arrest was made. It seems inevitable that a minimum of several hours will be required for this process, at the very best. Unless there is some kind of a power to prevent removal of material from the premises, or destruction of material during this time, the search warrant will almost inevitably be fruitless.... May they guard the premises, and prevent egress and entry, and action within the premises, while the search warrant is being obtained? We do not know.”
Some courts have found impoundment to be impermissible. See, e.g., Haynes v. State, 269 Ark. 506, 511, 602 S.W.2d 599 (1980); State v. Dorson, 62 Haw. 377, 615 P.2d 740 (1980).
The determination of whether exigent circumstances exist because the evidence is threatened with destruction or removal must be made in light of the particular facts of the case. An important issue is whether the police acted reasonably in conducting an immediate, warrantless search rather than waiting to obtain a search warrant. See United States v. McEachin, 670 F.2d 1139, 1145 (D.C.Cir.1981); United States v. Hendrix, 595 F.2d 883, 885-86 (D.C.Cir.1979); State v. Huff, 220 Kan. 162, 166-67, 551 P.2d 880 (1976); State v. Bradley, 264 N.W.2d 387, 388 (Minn.1978).
Decisions which have upheld warrantless searches on the basis of exigent circumstances in addition to Rubin, 474 F.2d 262, include McEachin; Hendrix; Durham v. United States, 237 A.2d 830 (D.C.1968); Huff; Bradley; and People v. Clements, 37 N.Y.2d 675, 339 N.E.2d 170, 376 N.Y.S.2d 480 (1975). I find significant what the New York Court of Appeals said in Clements. There an informant purchased marijuana on the premises and then left. He told officers the precise location of the marijuana supply (a certain dresser drawer). The police entered, arrested the two occupants, and then searched the drawer without a warrant. In upholding the search, the court said:
“It is suggested that rather than proceeding immediately to take possession of the concealed contraband, the police should have maintained a‘ surveillance of defend*227ants’ apartment for such period of time as would have been required to obtain a search warrant. The adoption of any such proposal, we suggest, as a practical matter, would necessarily have exposed these defendants to a much more objectionable intrusion than did the seizure here.
“While such an alternative might be verbalized as only a ‘surveillance’, on reflection one must be convinced that for the police merely to have manned an outside observation post would have been wholly inadequate to protect this contraband. As a practical matter the police would have had to take possession of defendants’ apartment, including surely all means of ingress and egress. Any person entering or leaving the apartment would have had to have been at least stopped and probably then restrained. Control of the areas adjoining the dresser would have had to have been assured. In sum this proposal would have entailed a much greater intrusion in both space and time than that to which defendants were actually subjected.
“Nor, more notably, would defendants in such event have had the protection of an interposed appraisal of probable cause for the more extensive intrusion by any neutral or detached Magistrate. Time and circumstance would no more have permitted postponement of police action to allow for presentation to a Magistrate for this purpose than for issuance of a search warrant.
“Confronted, as we think the officers here were, with the necessity to take some police action without delay, we cannot conclude that the action they chose to take must be struck down as unlawful. Faced with alternatives, as to none of which could there have been any preliminary independent judicial scrutiny, we cannot think that a fair or sensible balancing of the competing private and public interests demands that the greater intrusion be preferred over the lesser. (Cf. People v. Kreichman, 37 N.Y.2d 693 [376 N.Y.S.2d 497, 339 N.E.2d 182]; People v. Perel, 34 N.Y.2d 462, 467 [358 N.Y.S.2d 383, 315 N.E.2d 452]; United States v. Evans, [9 Cir.], 481 F.2d 990.)
*228“We hold that there was no infringement of the constitutional rights of these defendants. Other courts confronting similar factual situations have denied suppression. (E.g., United States v. Pino [2 Cir.], 431 F.2d 1043, cert. den. 402 U.S. 989 [91 S.Ct. 1675, 29 L.Ed.2d 154]; United States v. Lozaw, [2 Cir.], 427 F.2d 911; State v. Wiley, 522 S.W.2d 281 [Mo].) They have not held themselves bound by the unreasonably simplistic concept of ‘grabbable reach’ attributed to Chimel [v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969)]. (See People v. Perel, supra, [34 N.Y.2d] p. 467 [358 N.Y.S.2d 383, 315 N.E.2d 452].)” 37 N.Y.2d at 680-82, 339 N.E.2d 170, 376 N.Y.S.2d 480.
I see no way for the officers here to have preserved the status quo pending the procurement of a search warrant short of an illegal intrusion caused either by taking the foster sister into custody, or impounding the premises, or both. Given the fact that the foster sister had lied to the police as to the identity of the accused and that she again lied when the police returned by asserting that he was not on the premises when in fact he was, it seems to me probable that she would destroy or secrete elsewhere any evidence that might be on the premises once the accused had been taken into custody and thereby removed from the area.
It will be recalled that Rubin, 474 F.2d 262, referred to five circumstances which have seemed relevant to courts in scrutinizing warrantless searches under exigent circumstances: (1) the degree of urgency involved and the amount of time necessary to obtain a warrant; (2) reasonable belief that the contraband is about to be removed; (3) the possibility of danger to police officers guarding the site of the contraband while a search warrant is sought; (4) information indicating that the possessors of the contraband are aware that the police are on their trail; and (5) the ready destructability of the contraband and the knowledge that “efforts to dispose of narcotics and to escape are characteristic behavior of persons engaged in the narcotics traffic.” Obviously, the latter part of (5) has no bearing here.. The *229first part of (5) is relevant because although the gun in question could not have been destroyed, it certainly could have been secreted elsewhere. Stackhouse and his sister were well aware that the police were on his trail because he had been taken into custody. There would have been no possibility of danger to police officers guarding the site of the contraband while a search warrant was sought, but maintaining the status quo would have required an obvious intrusion. The presence of the sister who had lied certainly makes reasonable a belief that the evidence would have been removed. Given the time required to obtain a search warrant, removal would have been facilitated were there no intrusion by seizing the foster sister and the premises.
I think the realities and the practicalities of the situation here called for the action that was taken by the police officers. They had probable cause to believe evidence linking Stackhouse with the crime in question was on the premises. They reasonably could conclude that the evidence would be destroyed or removed before they could secure a search warrant. Thus, under these circumstances there was no infringement upon the constitutional rights of Stack-house. There is no Supreme Court case holding on facts such as these that the search was improper. There are opinions by respected courts holding that such action was proper. Hence, I would affirm.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge MURPHY concurs in the views here expressed.