Court Opinion

ID: 9549844
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:25:33.636114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:58.262140
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice:
(dissenting).
I believe the trial court erred in finding that the opening of the passenger door by the officer was not in good faith and in ruling that such act was a substantial violation of defendants’ fourth amendment rights. The arresting officer had his suspicions aroused when the passenger bent forward and leaned to the left and to the right after the officer stopped behind the suspect vehicle, which he had pulled over for speeding. Also suspicious was the driver’s alighting from the vehicle with his license and registration in hand, meeting the officer before he could get out of his car. The passenger continued to make “furtive gestures” which looked to the officer as if he were trying to conceal something. After issuing the citation to the driver, the officer walked to the passenger side of the vehicle, knocked on the window, opened the door, and asked for identification. When the door was opened, the officer saw a bag of marijuana.
The majority holds that unless an officer can articulate reasons why a person’s gestures and movements during a specific traffic stop differ from those of a person during other routine traffic stops, a search premised on those gestures and movements is based on a mere “hunch.” The officer here did exactly what the majority would require of him. He articulated specific reasons why the observable behavior of both the driver and the passenger gave rise to suspicions of illegal activity. However, the majority explains away the officer’s suspicions by listing possible innocent explanations for defendants’ behavior. Many situations which arouse a reasonable suspicion in a trained officer may also have innocent explanations. When an officer can articulate objectively observable facts which, given his training and experience, arouse a suspicion of illegal activity, such should be sufficient to justify his reasonable effort to investigate the suspicious behavior.
The touchstone in all fourth amendment analyses should always be “the reasonableness in all the circumstances of the particular governmental invasion of a citizen’s per*1140sonal security.” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1878, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Determining whether a particular act is reasonable calls for balancing the public interest and individuals’ rights to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers. United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2578-79, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975).
In the instant case, the intrusion occasioned by opening the door was minimal at best. The vehicle was already stopped for valid reasons. The officer had a suspicion founded on the observable actions of both the driver and the passenger that warranted his further investigation. His opening of the door to ask defendant for identification did not, under the circumstances, amount to an unreasonable search. The contraband in the door pocket was then in plain view, and the subjects were placed under arrest. The seizure of the remainder of the evidence was incident to a lawful, in-custody search. New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981).
I find no violation of defendants’ rights under the fourth amendment, nor would I extend article I, section 14 of the Utah Constitution to prohibit the actions taken by the officer. Therefore, I would reverse the order of the lower court suppressing the evidence in question.
Even accepting the trial court’s finding that the action of the officer was unreasonable, the order suppressing the evidence as to defendant Schlosser, the passenger in the vehicle, was clearly in error. The exclusionary rule is an attempt to effectuate the guarantees of the fourth amendment. United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 347, 94 S.Ct. 613, 619, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974). It is not a cloak to cover the misdeeds of those whose fourth amendment rights are not affected. State v. Criscola, 21 Utah 2d 272, 274, 444 P.2d 517, 519 (1968).
In Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978), the United States Supreme Court held that passengers had no expectation of privacy in a vehicle in which they were riding and that therefore evidence discovered in a search of the vehicle was admissible against them even though the search may have violated fourth amendment rights of someone else. Several other courts, including this Court, have arrived at the same conclusion, using the reasoning that the passenger simply lacked “standing” to challenge the validity of the search since no personal rights were violated. State v. Constantino, 732 P.2d 125 (Utah 1987) (per curiam); State v. Valdez, 689 P.2d 1334 (Utah 1984); State v. Warren, 121 Ariz. 306, 589 P.2d 1338 (1978); State v. Heath, 222 Kan. 50, 563 P.2d 418 (1977); State v. Ribera, 183 Mont. 1, 597 P.2d 1164 (1979); see State v. Mustain, 21 Wash.App. 39, 584 P.2d 405 (1978); see also State v. Purcell, 586 P.2d 441 (Utah 1978).
. The majority is in error in evading the question of the standing of Schlosser. We have never required that issue to be raised by the parties in the trial court or in this Court. Only last month in State v. Tuttle, 106 Utah Adv.Rep. 6, 8, (April 12, 1989), we stated: “Standing is an issue that a court can raise sua sponte at any time.” We cited in support Society of Professional Journalists v. Bullock, 743 P.2d 1166, 1169 (Utah 1987), and Utah Restaurant Association v. Davis County Board of Health, 709 P.2d 1159, 1160 (Utah 1985). In all three of those cases, lack of standing had not been raised by either party in the trial court or in this Court. Yet we sua sponte raised the question and dealt with it. Again, in Terracor v. Utah Board of State Lands, 716 P.2d 796, 798 (Utah 1986), we stated: “The parties have not raised or addressed the question of Terracor’s standing to bring this petition to challenge the legality of the Land Board’s lease. However, this Court may address that issue sua sponte ” (citations omitted). The rule relied upon by the majority that a claim of error cannot be raised for the first time on appeal is applicable to the parties but has never stood in the way of this Court's noting lack of standing when it is apparent to us, as in the instant case.
*1141Schlosser was merely a passenger in the vehicle. He asserted no rights of ownership or control, and he had no “expectation of privacy” in the interior of the vehicle, Rakas, 439 U.S. at 148, 99 S.Ct. at 433. Therefore, neither the opening of the door nor the resulting search of the vehicle violated his fourth amendment rights. Even assuming opening the door violated Low-der’s rights, that is not grounds to exclude the evidence as to Schlosser. Fourth amendment rights are personal and cannot be asserted vicariously. See Brown v. United States, 411 U.S. 223, 230, 93 S.Ct. 1565, 1570, 36 L.Ed.2d 208 (1973).
Schlosser was represented by separate counsel and had moved to sever his trial from that of Lowder. Although both defendants joined in the motion to suppress, the court clearly should have denied the motion with respect to Schlosser. Failure to do so was error.
HALL, C.J., concurs in the dissenting opinion of Associate C.J. HOWE.