Court Opinion

ID: 9742288
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:10:08.067858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:07:16.279468
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Judge,
dissenting.
Since I believe the search conducted in this case does not fall within the inventory search exception to the warrant requirement, I must dissent.
As the majority correctly asserts, inventory searches are subject to a case by case examination. The search conducted in the case before us amounted to an excessive intrusion into Collins’ privacy interests, and, therefore, violates the fourth amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. The inventory search exception was developed to allow police a mechanism through which an arrested person’s property can be properly cared for. Because I do not believe Collins was under arrest at the time the booking procedure took place, I disagree with the majority’s application of the inventory search exception.
There is a dispute in this case of when Collins’ arrest was actually effectuated. The record unequivocally indicates, however, that at the time the deputy placed the jacket on the front seat of the patrol car and at the time he handed the jacket to the booking clerk, Collins was not under arrest. The inventory search procedure was initiated when the deputy gave the jacket to the clerk. The resulting search was" viola-tive of the fourth amendment because the procedure began before Collins was arrested. The fact that Collins was subsequently arrested does not cure the fourth amendment violation. Similarly, the fact that standardized procedures were used to conduct the search does not excuse the unwarranted intrusion into Collins’ protected privacy interest.
*96In support of its analysis, the majority refers to recent Supreme Court decisions regarding inventory searches. The cited cases, however, involve inventory searches following arrest. For example, the defendant in Colorado v. Bertine (1987), 479 U.S. 367, 107 S.Ct. 738, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (adopted in Paschall v. State (1988), Ind., 523 N.E.2d 1359) was arrested and taken into custody before an inventory search was conducted on his van. Similarly, in Illinois v. Lafayette (1983), 462 U.S. 640, 103 S.Ct. 2605, 77 L.Ed.2d 65, the defendant was arrested for disturbing the peace prior to an inventory search of his shoulder bag. In fact, the majority’s quotation of the following language from Lafayette illustrates the necessity of an arrest:
[W]e hold that it is not “unreasonable” for police, as a part of the routine procedure incident to incarcerating an arrested person, to search any container or article in his possession, in accordance with established inventory procedures.
103 S.Ct. at 2610-11 (emphasis added.)
The facts of the present case are against the Lafayette holding for two reasons. First, the inventory search conducted was not incident to Collins’ incarceration. He was not on his way to jail when the search was conducted. Second, the jacket was not in his possession when he entered the station house. The deputy had possession of the jacket which he released to the booking clerk.
In some instances, the timing of the arrest has not defeated a preceding search. I note that the United States Supreme Court has stated that: “where the formal arrest followed quickly on the heels of the challenged search of petitioner’s person, we do not believe it particularly important that the search preceded the arrest rather than vice versa.” Rawlings v. Kentucky (1980), 448 U.S. 98, 111, 100 S.Ct. 2556, 2564, 65 L.Ed.2d 633. Rawlings is distinguishable, however, because the arrest in that case took place within minutes following the challenged search. In the present case, Collins was first detained on April 11, 1986. He was not charged with possession, however, until April 23, 1986. A nearly two-week delay was not an arrest “following quickly on the heels” of the challenged search as contemplated in Rawlings. More importantly, the Rawlings court qualified its statement by noting that the fruits of the search could not be “necessary to support probable cause to arrest.” 448 U.S. at 111, n. 6, 100 S.Ct. at 2564, n. 6. Unlike the scenario in Rawlings, the deputy in the present case did not have probable cause to arrest Collins with possession of cocaine without the fruits of the search initiated prior to his arrest on either operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated charge or the cocaine possession charge.
The result reached by the majority opens the door for police subterfuge. Namely, the police can employ station house detention for suspicion of a crime, not arrest the suspect, and perform an inventory search on his personal effects.
It is my position that Collins had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his jacket and its contents. This privacy interest was violated when his jacket was searched without benefit of a warrant and in the absence of a recognized exception to the warrant requirement. I would reverse his conviction based on the trial court’s error in admitting the fruit of a search conducted in violation of the fourth amendment.