Court Opinion

ID: 9789878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:43:24.165692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:24.885614
License: Public Domain

GREENWOOD, Judge
(concurring in the result):
I concur in the result and the reasoning of my colleagues in all respects except as concerns the existence of probable cause to justify the warrantless search of defendant’s apartment and balcony. I cannot agree that the totality of the circumstances justifies a conclusion that there was probable cause to believe defendant had committed or was *550committing a criminal offense. See State v. Spurgeon, 904 P.2d 220, 226 (Utah.Ct.App.1995). However, I believe the search can be validated by application of the “emergency aid doctrine,” which provides an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. The elements of this doctrine are as follows:
(1) The police must have reasonable grounds to believe that there is an emergency at hand and an immediate need for their assistance for the protection of life or property.
(2) The search must not be primarily motivated by intent to arrest and seize evidence.
(3) There must be some reasonable basis, approximating probable cause, to associate the emergency with the area or place to be searched.
People v. Mitchell, 39 N.Y.2d 173, 383 N.Y.S.2d 246, 248, 347 N.E.2d 607, 609 (1976). In Mitchell, police officers were searching a New York City hotel for a chambermaid reported missing from her assigned location. Id. at 247, 347 N.E.2d at 608. The maid’s street clothes and partially eaten lunch were discovered, but a four hour search was unsuccessful. Finally, police commenced a room-by-room search. Defendant, to whom officers had earlier talked, said he had not seen the maid, and his room was the last one searched. Police discovered the maid’s corpse in defendant’s closet. The New York Court of Appeals held that the search “was not interdicted by the Fourth Amendment because it was triggered in response to an emergency situation and was not motivated by the intent to apprehend and arrest him or to seize evidence.” Id.; cf. Provo City v. Warden, 844 P.2d 360, 364 (Utah.Ct.App.1992) (adopting “imminent danger to life or limb” as criteria to justify community caretaker automobile stop), aff'd 875 P.2d 557 (Utah 1994).
In this case, an emergency situation existed because of the missing child, discovery of her clothing, the cold temperature, and the amount of time that had passed since the child’s disappearance. Proximity of the clothing to defendant’s apartment and the officers’ concerns about defendant’s behavior and demeanor do not rise to probable cause, in my opinion, but do provide a “reasonable basis, approximating probable cause,” that is, a nexus between the emergency situation and defendant’s apartment, to justify the search under the emergency aid doctrine. Additionally, the primary concern at the time of the search was not the arrest of defendant or seizure of evidence, but rather, the life and well-being of the missing child. I would therefore find the search legal under the Fourth Amendment on the basis of the emergency aid doctrine.