Court Opinion

ID: 9670447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:20:43.854261+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:04.523992
License: Public Domain

*189COLER, Justice
(dissenting).
I would reverse on the basis that this was an unconstitutional invasion of defendants’, Watson and Skorpik, expectations of privacy in their residence without their consent. The factual situation in this case is strikingly similar to the facts in State v. Davis, 1975, Iowa, 228 N.W.2d 67. The Iowa court therein fully analyzed Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 1971, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 and Katz v. United States, 1967, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 and we would do well to follow their lead.
At the preliminary hearing, immediately following the hearing on the motion to suppress, the committing magistrate, Paul J. Kern, stated, “The defense had an opportunity to bring forth evidence concerning the allegation in the affidavit as to the fact whether or not this was Randell Lee Skorpik’s home at the time, and therefore I am going to deny this allegation on the basis that the sheriff was acting under the directions of the father to watch that lot and I consider that a continuing direction.” Judge Kern further stated, “Now in so doing, under the plain sight doctrine, or plain view doctrine, when he looked through the window and saw a hashish pot or marijuana pot, I would think under those circumstances that he should see what was going on. As far as entering the premises at that time I don’t believe that he had sufficient probable cause at that time.” (emphasis supplied) This was on the basis that looking out for machinery justified investigation of the house and activities therein.
During the course of the same hearing, but thereafter, Charles Skorpik, father of defendant Randall Lee Skorpik, did testify that the premises were occupied by his son. The mother of the defendant Skorpik, as well as college friends and several people who performed services at the house, related facts to sufficiently establish that this house, however dilapidated, was the home of two of these defendants. I believe the trial court erred by considering only the transcript of the suppression hearing and not the subsequent evidence relating to those defendants’ occupation of the dwelling giving rise to their *190reasonable expectation of privacy under Katz and Coolidge, supra.
The evidence admitted was not in the plain view of the sheriff who walked by a window of the living room when the shade was lowered half way and the only available light sifted in from an adjoining room. The sheriff only glanced into that window, without stealth, while passing some three feet from the house. The sheriff, as he passed that point, stepped upon a window or a pane of glass causing a loud crash. Thereupon, someone inside lowered the shade of the window to six or eight inches from the bottom of the window. It was at this time that' the sheriff’s curiosity was aroused and he returned to peep into the window, saw a box in the middle of the room with young men sitting around it and at least suspected he saw a hashish pipe, which he later seized.
From the record in this case the sheriff did not believe that he had any reasonable grounds to arrest until he actually seized the paraphernalia and the baggies in the living room which he entered without consent of anyone present and certainly without the consent of the owner of the premises. When young Skorpik blocked his way, he told him he had a warrant for his arrest but he did not serve it and obviously used it as a means of psychologically convincing Skorpik that he had no right to resist his entry.
I am further convinced that the evidence before the trial court does not support a finding that the sheriff was allowed to do what he did because he was asked by the owner of the machinery to look out for the machinery. There is nothing in the testimony of the neighboring farmer, who reported to the sheriff before 9:00 p. m. that evening, to indicate anything but an assemblage of persons at the house. No crime was reported, only their presence. Quite obviously, the sheriff was well aware that it was not a den of thieves because it was somewhat over four hours after being notified of their presence that he arrived at the scene with his posse. The machinery that he was asked to guard was, for the most part, more than a block away from the dwelling.
The sheriff arrested no one until after he had entered the *191living room and seized the evidence. This practice our court has long condemned. State v. Jackson, 1933, 61 S.D. 499, 250 N.W. 55; State v. Lane, 1957, 76 S.D. 544, 82 N.W.2d 286; State v. McCreary, 1966, 82 S.D. 111, 142 N.W.2d 240. If there had been a valid arrest based upon probable cause and his window peeping had given him confidence that a crime had been committed in his presence, his timely arrest and search might have been justified under the plain view doctrine.