Court Opinion

ID: 9792805
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:37:07.252837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:19.848461
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice YOLLACK
dissenting:
The majority affirms the district court’s order suppressing evidence of a controlled substance found on the defendant, Jeffrey Padgett (Padgett). The majority determines that the officers’ initial contact with Padgett constituted an unlawful investigatory stop which was not supported by reasonable suspicion that Padgett was engaged in criminal activity. I dissent because I believe that the officers’ initial contact with Padgett did not constitute an investigatory stop but instead constituted a permissible consensual encounter that did not rise to the level of a Fourth Amendment seizure. I would therefore reverse the district court’s order suppressing the evidence obtained in this case.
I.
On January 18,1996, Officer David Straley (Officer Straley) and Reserve Officer Todd Cope (Officer Cope) were on routine patrol in an area of Sheridan, Colorado, that has a history of criminal mischief, ear burglaries, criminal trespass, and other criminal problems. At approximately 1:50 a.m., during a time of minimal foot traffic, the officers observed two individuals crossing the street. One of the individuals stumbled, which caught Officer Straley’s attention. The two individuals apparently observed the officers’ patrol car approaching them, and one of them, later identified as William Glaze (Glaze), stopped while the other one, later identified as Padgett, continued to walk away from the officers.
Officer Straley then called out to Padgett: “Excuse me, do you have a second? Can I talk to you?” Padgett continued to walk, so Officer Straley called out the same questions again. Padgett then slowed down and stopped to talk to the officers. The officers asked Padgett and Glaze for their identification and cheeked the Colorado Crime Information Center (CCIC) to determine if there were any outstanding arrest warrants for the two men. While the CCIC cheek was in progress, Padgett asked the officers two or three times why they had contacted him. Officer Straley responded that the officers wanted to see if Padgett and Glaze were all right, and asked what they were doing. Pad-gett told the officers that he and Glaze were coming from a nearby bar and that they were on their way home.
A few minutes later, the officers received a response from dispatch that there was a “Code 6-F” for Padgett, indicating the possi*818ble existence of outstanding felony warrants for his arrest. At this time, Padgett began to run away from the officers. Officer Stra-ley ordered Padgett to stop, but Padgett did not do so. Officer Straley and Officer Cope then chased Padgett until they were able to catch up with him. Officer Straley restrained Padgett and conducted a pat-down search. While conducting the pat-down search, Officer Straley felt a large hard object underneath Padgett’s shirt, which the officer believed may have been a weapon. Upon removing the object, Officer Straley discovered that it was a large plastic bag containing a brick of green, leafy substance later identified as marijuana. Officer Straley continued the pat-down search and discovered another brick of marijuana on Padgett’s person. The officers then received confirmation that there were outstanding warrants for Padgett’s arrest.
II.
The majority holds that the initial contact between the officers and the defendant in this ease constituted an investigatory stop which implicated the protections of the Fourth Amendment. I disagree.
The United States Supreme Court has held that law enforcement officers do not implicate the Fourth Amendment by merely approaching an individual on the street or in another public place. See Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 497, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1323-24, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983). Unless the circumstances of the encounter are so intimidating as to demonstrate that a reasonable person would believe he is not free to leave, one cannot say that questioning results in a detention under the Fourth Amendment. See INS v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 216, 104 S.Ct. 1758,1762-63, 80 L.Ed.2d 247 (1984).
Consistent with the United States Supreme Court, Colorado recognizes three general categories of encounters between police officers and citizens: (1) arrests; (2) investigatory stops; and (3) consensual interviews. See People v. Hill, 929 P.2d 735, 738-39 (Colo.1996). Although arrests and investigatory stops implicate the protections of Article II, Section 7, of the Colorado Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, consensual interviews do not. See Hill, 929 P.2d at 738-39.
Consensual interviews are encounters “in which no restraint of the liberty of the citizen is implicated, but the voluntary cooperation of the citizen is elicited through non-coercive questioning.” People v. Johnson, 865 P.2d 836, 842 (Colo.1994) (quoting People v. Trujillo, 773 P.2d 1086, 1089 (Colo.1989)). The test for determining if the encounter is a consensual one is whether a reasonable person under the circumstances would believe he or she was free to leave and/or to disregard the official’s request for information. See People v. Thomas, 839 P.2d 1174, 1177-78 (Colo.1992); see also People v. Dickinson, 928 P.2d 1309 (Colo.1996); People v. T.H., 892 P.2d 301 (Colo.1995).
In People v. Johnson, two police officers observed the defendant running down an airport concourse toward a departure gate. While the defendant was standing in line to board the aircraft for his flight, the two officers approached him. The officers identified themselves as law enforcement officers and proceeded to ask him numerous questions, including whether he was carrying any narcotics or large sums of money. When the defendant replied in the negative, the officers asked to search his bags and the defendant gave his consent. We held in Johnson that “[Heaving aside the inherent pressure felt by any citizen to cooperate with a law enforcement officer,” the circumstances surrounding the initial encounter between the officers and the defendant were not so intimidating as to constitute a Fourth Amendment seizure. Johnson, 865 P.2d at 843.
In the current case, Officer Straley initially made contact with Padgett in a public street by asking, “Excuse me, do you have a second? Can I talk to you?” Officer Straley thus contacted Padgett by asking Padgett to talk to the officers, rather than commanding him to do so. Padgett responded by stopping and talking with the officers. The officers then performed a CCIC cheek which was an extension of the identification check *819in this case.1 Officer Straley also proceeded to ask Padgett and his companion a few questions, which they voluntarily answered. Under the totality of the circumstances of this case, I believe that the encounter did not implicate any restraint on Padgett’s liberty but instead involved Padgett’s voluntary cooperation through non-coercive questioning. Leaving aside any inherent pressure Padgett may have felt to cooperate with the officers in this case, the initial encounter does not appear so intimidating as to demonstrate that a reasonable person would have believed he was not free to leave. I would therefore hold that the initial encounter between Pad-gett and the officers was a consensual interview which did not implicate Fourth Amendment protections.
III.
Having concluded that the initial contact in this case was consensual, I now turn to the remainder of the encounter between Padgett and the officers.
To be valid, a warrantless arrest must be supported by probable cause. See People v. Washington, 865 P.2d 145, 147 (Colo.1994). Probable cause to arrest exists when facts and circumstances within the arresting officer’s knowledge are sufficient to support a reasonable belief that a crime has been or is being committed by the person arrested. See id. In determining whether there is probable cause to arrest, the totality of circumstances known to the officer at'the time of arrest must be considered. See id. As the term suggests, probable cause deals with probabilities, not certainties, and it is sufficient if the officer reasonably believed that the person arrested committed a crime. See id.
In the current case, the CCIC check revealed the possible existence of outstanding warrants for Padgett’s arrest. Although the officers had not yet confirmed this information, the possible outstanding warrants combined with Padgett’s attempt to run away sufficiently provided the officers with a reasonable belief that Padgett had an outstanding arrest warrant. Consequently, the officers had probable cause to chase, arrest, and conduct a patdown search of Padgett.
IV.
The initial encounter between Padgett and the officers in the current case constituted a consensual interview rather than an investigatory stop. The officers then obtained probable cause to arrest Padgett after they learned of possible warrants for his arrest and he ran away. Once the officers had probable cause to arrest Padgett, they properly conducted a pat-down search and properly discovered the marijuana on his person. Therefore, I would reverse the district court’s suppression of the marijuana.
I am authorized to say that Justice KOURLIS joins in this dissent.

. Identification checks are a common and permissible part of consensual interviews. See, e.g., People v. T.H., 892 P.2d 301 (Colo.1995); People v. Johnson, 865 P.2d 836 (Colo.1994).