Court Opinion

ID: 9535706
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:52:03.447336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:18.678684
License: Public Domain

BENCH, Judge
(concurring and dissenting):
I fully concur in the main opinion except for the section entitled “Search of Hyatt’s Escort.” Defendants never argue that the officers should not have searched the Escort because Davis did not have common authority or control over it. Defendants argue simply, “The fact that Davis was on probation is not cause enough in which to search either Davis or Hyatt or any of their belongings including vehicles and residence.” I believe that the main opinion inappropriately departs from basic principles of appellate review when it decides the issue on grounds never urged by defendants in their brief on appeal. See, e.g., American Towers Onmers Ass’n v. CCI Mechanical, Inc., 930 P.2d 1182, 1185 n. 5 (Utah 1996) (“Issues not briefed by an appellant are deemed waived and abandoned.”); Bott v. DeLand, 922 P.2d 732, 741 (Utah 1996) (“Where an appellant fails to brief an issue on appeal, the point is waived.”); State v. Vigil, 922 P.2d 15, 25 (Utah Ct.App.1996) (“It is well settled that an appellate court is not ‘ “a depository in *539which the appealing party may dump the burden of argument and research.’”” (citations omitted)).
In any event, on the facts presented, the officers reasonably believed that Davis had common authority or control over the Escort. See Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 185, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 2800, 111 L.Ed.2d 148 (1990) (“[W]hat is generally demanded of the many factual determinations that must regularly be made by agents of the government ... is not that they always be correct, but that they always be reasonable.”); see also Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 1311, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949) (“Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability”).
I would therefore affirm the convictions entered by the trial court.