Court Opinion

ID: 9845628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:25:26.607045+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:16.666334
License: Public Domain

Justice VOLLACK
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the majority holding affirming the suppression order of the Mesa County District Court. In my opinion the encounter between the defendant and the law enforcement officers involved in this case did not constitute a seizure implicating the fourth amendment. I would therefore reverse the suppression order of the district court.
Not every encounter between police officers and citizens implicates the fourth amendment. Immigration and Naturalization Serv. v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 215, 104 S.Ct. 1758, 1762, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984). “[L]aw enforcement officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment by merely approaching an individual on the street or in another public place, by asking him some questions, by putting questions to him if he is willing to listen, or by offering in evidence in a criminal prosecution his voluntary answers to such questions.” Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 497, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1324, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983); see also People v. Casias, 193 Colo. 66, 74 n. 9, 563 P.2d 926, 932 n. 9 (1977). The Court noted in Delgado, 466 U.S. at 216, 104 S.Ct. at 1762, that “[w]hat is apparent from Royer and Brown [v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979),] is that police questioning, by itself, is unlikely to result in a Fourth Amendment violation.” “Only when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a ‘seizure’ has occurred.” Delgado, 466 U.S. at 215, 104 S.Ct. at 1762; accord Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); People v. Harper, 726 P.2d 1129, 1131 (Colo.1986). In determining whether police officers have “seized” citizens within the *975meaning of the fourth amendment, the Supreme Court has considered whether, “in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.” Delgado, 466 U.S. at 215, 104 S.Ct. at 1762; accord United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1877, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980); Harper, 726 P.2d at 1131; People v. Thiret, 685 P.2d 193, 203 (Colo.1984). The Delgado Court stated that “[u]nless the circumstances of the encounter are so intimidating as to demonstrate that a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave if he had not responded, one cannot say that the questioning resulted in a detention under the Fourth Amendment.” Delgado, 466 U.S. at 216, 104 S.Ct. at 1763.
The relevant criteria to be considered in determining whether a person is in custody include, inter alia, the time, place, and purpose of the encounter; the words used by the officer; the officer’s demeanor; and the person’s verbal or nonverbal response to any directions given to him by the officer.
Harper, 726 P.2d at 1131; see also People v. Milhollin, 751 P.2d 43, 49-50 (Colo.1988). Whether a particular set of facts and circumstances describes a “seizure” within the meaning of the fourth amendment is an objective question of law. See Milhollin, 751 P.2d at 50; People v. Ratcliff, 778 P.2d 1371, 1376 (Colo.1989).
In Delgado, the Court held that Immigration and Naturalization Service agents did not effect a seizure under the fourth amendment when they arrived at a factory unannounced and questioned the factory workers individually about their identification and their immigration status. 466 U.S. at 218, 104 S.Ct. at 1763. In Delgado some of the immigration agents positioned themselves near the exits of the factory building. Id. The respondents argued that “the manner in which the surveys were conducted and the attendant disruption caused by the surveys created a psychological environment which made [the factory workers] reasonably afraid that they were not free to leave.” Id. at 220, 104 S.Ct. at 1765. The Court rejected this argument and held that “the encounters [with the INS agents] ... were classic consensual encounters rather than Fourth Amendment seizures.” Id. at 221, 104 S.Ct. at 1765.
When Detective Booth approached the car in which the defendant was sitting and asked the persons in the back seat for identification, his contact with the occupants of the car did not constitute a “seizure” within the meaning of the fourth amendment. In this case the defendant and the other person questioned were seated in a car on the street. Cf. Benitez-Mendez v. Immigration and Naturalization Serv., 760 F.2d 907, 909 (9th Cir.1983) (no seizure where officers approached petitioner in an open field and asked questions); United States v. Castellanos, 731 F.2d 979, 983-84 (D.C.Cir.1984) (no seizure occurred where police officer approached man in parked car and asked for identification); United States v. Galindo-Hernandez, 674 F.Supp. 979, 984 (E.D.N.Y.1987). Detective Booth testified that at the time he approached the car his main concern was the Hernandez-Barba residence. In response to the district attorney’s question, “What would you have done at the time you first came to the scene if Ernesto Carillo and the other people in this vehicle had driven away?” Detective Booth stated: “I don’t know what I would have done. My — our intentions were to secure that residence.” Detective Booth asked the defendant for identification but the defendant did not respond, leading Detective Booth to. conclude that the defendant did not speak English. There is no indication in the record that Detective Booth indicated to the defendant that he was not free to leave, or prevented the defendant or any other occupant of the car from leaving. Cf. Delgado, 466 U.S. at 212, 104 S.Ct. at 1760; Benitez-Mendez, 760 F.2d at 909; but cf. Royer, 460 U.S. at 501, 103 S.Ct. at 1326.
Detective Booth then asked the police dispatcher to contact Special Agent Hines of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Detective Booth felt that Agent Hines, who speaks Spanish fluently, could communicate with the persons in the back seat of the car. Before Agent Hines ar*976rived, Officer Mendoza of the Grand Junction Police Department asked the defendant in Spanish “if he had the English equivalent of papers or documentation.” The defendant did not produce any documents. Officer Mendoza testified that his initial contact with the defendant was “[v]ery brief, just during the course of the questioning about his documents. No more than that. It was very brief.”
Agent Hines testified that when he arrived, which was approximately fifteen minutes after Detective Booth’s initial encounter with the defendant, there were no law enforcement personnel in the immediate vicinity of the car. Agent Hines asked the defendant to state his citizenship, and asked the defendant if he had any documents that would show that he was legally in the United States.1 The defendant did not produce any documents, and told Agent Hines that he was an illegal alien. Agent Hines and Officer Mendoza then arrested the defendant. Agent Hines later discovered that the defendant had in fact been admitted into the United States as a permanent resident.
The district court concluded that a detention had taken place when Booth asked the defendant for identification because the Hernandez-Barba residence had been “secured,” the driver of the car had been detained for questioning, and at least three law enforcement officers were present.2 The district court found, however, that there was no testimony at the hearing about exactly what was involved in the “securing” of the residence. The car in which the defendant sat was parked on the street in front of the residence. There is no support in the record for the district court’s conclusion that the driver of the car had been detained for questioning. Finally, the mere presence of police officers does not transform encounters between law enforcement officers and citizens into fourth amendment seizures. Delgado, 466 U.S. at 218, 104 S.Ct. at 1763; Castellanos, 731 F.2d at 983; Galindo-Hernandez, 674 F.Supp. at 984. Under the circumstances of this case, the encounter between the defendant and Detective Booth was a consensual encounter which did not implicate the fourth amendment. Delgado, 466 U.S. at 221, 104 S.Ct. at 1765; Castellanos, 731 F.2d at 983; Galindo-Hernandez, 674 F.Supp. at 984.
The district court held that if the initial questioning of the defendant was legal, then everything the officers did subsequent to questioning the defendant was legal, including arresting and searching the defendant. I would hold that the initial encounters between the defendant and Detective Booth, Officer Mendoza, and Agent Hines did not constitute a fourth amendment seizure. Therefore, I would not address whether any of the officers possessed a reasonable suspicion which would have justified an investigatory detention of the defendant, and I would reverse the suppression order of the district court.
I am authorized to say that Chief Justice ROVIRA joins in this dissent.

. Agent Hines spoke to the defendant in Spanish but later discovered that the defendant "speaks English pretty well.”

. The record suggests that Officer Mendoza was in uniform, but does not indicate how Detective Booth, Officer Grimsby, or Agent Hines were dressed.