Court Opinion

ID: 9709802
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:55:00.873574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:51.600491
License: Public Domain

O’Connell, J.
(dissenting). The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress evidence. A trial court’s ruling with regard to a motion to suppress evidence is entitled to deference unless there is clear error on the part of the trial court. People v Burrell, 417 Mich 439, 448; 339 NW2d 403 (1983). Because the trial court’s decision was not clearly erroneous, I would affirm the trial court’s decision.
i
Two Detroit police officers stopped a vehicle in the City of Detroit for speeding at 8:00 p.m. on April 6, 1994. Defendant was a passenger in the front seat of the vehicle. Officer Dwayne Jackson confronted defendant and Jackson’s partner approached the driver. Jackson looked into the window and noticed a bulge in the waist area of defendant’s jacket. Thinking that defendant might be armed, Jackson asked him to get out of the vehicle and he conducted a patdown search of the bulge. There, he "felt a rock hard lumpy substance in his pocket,” which, on the basis of the officer’s experience, he thought was "cocaine, narcotics.” He could not confirm the presence of narcotics until he removed a bag from defendant’s jacket and found in it "an off-white lumpy substance in a clear plastic bag inside of a brown paper bag.” During the patdown search, the object creating the bulge felt "almost like a baseball . . . one big lump.” However, the object was "smaller than a baseball.”
The trial court denied defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence, concluding the officer lawfully seized the drugs pursuant to the plain feel *644doctrine. See Minnesota v Dickerson, 508 US 366; 113 S Ct 2130; 124 L Ed 2d 334 (1993).
The trial court stated:
Here we have a situation where the police stopped, and it appears rightfully patted down, and the officer here, Officer Jackson, said he felt something that to him it felt like some narcotics. He said he felt a bulge and then he felt what felt like some crumbs and to him that felt like narcotics, and based on his experience he assumed that it was narcotics.
We granted defendant’s application for leave to appeal and stayed proceedings in the trial court.
ii
In Dickerson, supra, p 375, the Court stated that "[i]f a police officer lawfully pats down a suspect’s outer clothing and feels an object whose contour or mass makes its identity immediately apparent, there has been no invasion of the suspect’s privacy beyond that already authorized by the officer’s search for weapons.”
In the present case, Officer Jackson conducted a patdown search for his safety. The patdown search was justified and is not challenged on appeal. Terry v Ohio, 392 US 1; 88 S Ct 1868; 20 L Ed 2d 889 (1968). The patdown did not go beyond the outer clothing in a search for weapons. The officer felt a hard ball-shaped object with pieces broken off, which, in his experience, he believed to be cocaine. Officer Jackson testified "that he felt something that to him felt like some narcotics.” In other words, it was "immediately apparent” to Officer Jackson that defendant was in possession of narcotics.
*645The fact that the police officer had to remove the item from defendant’s jacket to confirm his initial impression does not affect its identity as being "immediately apparent.” "Immediately apparent” means having probable cause without further search. As stated in United States v Schiavo, 29 F3d 6, 9 (CA 1, 1994):
During a lawful Terry-type search, police officers may seize an object in "plain view” without a warrant if they have probable cause to believe it is contraband without conducting some further search of the object, i.e., if its incriminating character is "immediately apparent.” Dickerson at —, 113 S Ct at 2136-37. Likewise, the "plain feel” doctrine permits an officer to seize an object, if its incriminating character is immediately apparent during a lawful protective pat-search. Id. at —, 113 S Ct at 2137-38.
Here, the trial court found that "based on his [law enforcement] experience [Officer Jackson] assumed it was narcotics.” In other words, the police officer had probable cause to believe that defendant was in possession of narcotics. The trial court’s decision is not clearly erroneous.
hi
Defendant argues that the search violated People v Champion, 205 Mich App 623; 518 NW2d 518 (1994), because the officer was not absolutely certain what the object was and had to remove it from defendant’s pocket before he was certain. The facts of this case are clearly distinguishable from Champion, supra. However, I write further to say Champion was wrongly decided.
In Champion, the suspicious object was. a pill bottle that the officer felt in the defendant’s groin *646area during a Terry patdown search.1 This Court pointed out that "[mjerely from feeling the contours of a pill bottle, the officer was able to conclude that defendant carried a pill bottle, not that he carried contraband. . . . [I]t was his visual inspection of the pill bottle, after removing it from defendant, rather than its 'plain feel’ that revealed the contents to be cocaine.” Champion, supra, p 632.
I agree that the item that was "immediately apparent” was a pill bottle and that, in and of itself, this would not give a police officer probable cause to search. However, a pill bottle located in a person’s groin area does give the police officer probable cause to search. A police officer of reasonable caution would be justified in removing the pill bottle from the defendant’s groin area.
Applying the reasoning of the Champion majority to the following hypothetical illustrates its flawed reasoning: Police conduct a patdown search of a suspect and feel a gun holster (the container) strapped to the suspect’s leg. Applying the Champion logic, this is not probable cause to search, because it is not "immediately apparent” that the suspect has a gun. It is only immediately apparent that he has a holster. This logic is flawed and could have serious ramifications.
The correct application would be to consider the totality of the circumstances of each situation. Considering the totality of the circumstances surrounding Champion and the present case reveals no violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. I would find that feeling a "pill bottle in defendant’s groin” or a holster strapped to a suspect’s leg, although both are containers, does give the police officer probable *647cause to search. However, a pill bottle in a suspect’s purse would be a substantially different issue.
I find no clear error on the part of the trial court. Burrell, supra, p 448.
I would affirm the trial court’s decision.

 We note that most police officers would find it suspicious to find a pill bottle in this location.