Court Opinion

ID: 9763843
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:57:54.535303+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:49.829807
License: Public Domain

RAKER, Judge,
dissenting:
I would reverse the judgment of conviction. Under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and *146Article 26 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights, appellant, Aaron Scott, was unlawfully seized by the police.
I would reverse the judgment of conviction because I believe that the trial court erred in denying appellant’s motion to suppress. The suppression court made no findings as to whether appellant was seized and, if so, whether that seizure was lawful. Because I believe that the seizure was unlawful and the consent was obtained during that illegal seizure, the consent is not valid unless the State proves, and the trial court finds, that the consent was not the product of the unlawful seizure and that the consent was voluntary. The trial court should have made factual findings requisite to a proper analysis of the validity of the consent.1
This case involves the law enforcement technique known as the “knock and talk,” an investigatory tool that apparently has been around for many decades, but has not made itself into court opinions until the early 1990’s. It is an investigative technique whereby police officers seek to gain an occupant’s consent to search a dwelling, without a search warrant, when they lack probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime is occurring inside.
It is well settled that the Fourth Amendment and Article 26 apply to all seizures of a person. See United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980); Ferris v. State, 355 Md. 356, 735 A.2d 491 (1999). As the majority notes, in a case such as this one, the proper test to determine whether a person has been seized is whether a reasonable' person would not feel free to decline the officers’ requests or otherwise terminate the encounter.2 See Florida *147v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 436, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 2389, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991); Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 501, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1326, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983). Considering all of the circumstances, and particularly the time and place of the encounter, I would find, contrary to the majority, see maj. op. at 137-138, that there was a seizure in this case.
I do not believe that a reasonable person in the shoes of appellant, given the place, time, and circumstances of the encounter, would terminate the encounter at the door and feel free to decline the officers’ request to search his motel room. There was no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to support any seizure and, therefore, the seizure was unlawful. Given that the initial seizure of appellant’s person by the police was unlawful, in order for any consent given by appellant to be voluntary, rather than a mere acquiescence to a show of authority, such consent would be valid only if the court found it to be sufficiently purged of the primary taint of the illegal seizure. See Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 599, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 2259, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975); McMillian v. State, 325 Md. 272, 286-87, 600 A.2d 430, 437 (1992); State v. Wilson, 279 Md. 189, 203, 367 A.2d 1223, 1232 (1977). Absent such a showing of attenuation, the evidence obtained as a result of such consent should have been suppressed. Therefore, the Circuit Court erred in denying appellant’s motion to suppress and admitting the evidence taken from his motel room.
Our review of the Circuit Court’s denial of a motion to suppress is based solely upon the record of the suppression hearing. See Ferris, 355 Md. at 368, 735 A.2d at 497. We review the trial court’s factual findings in the light most favorable to the State, pursuant to a clear error standard, but we review the legal conclusions de novo. See id.; In re Tariq A-R-Y, 347 Md. 484, 488, 701 A.2d 691, 693 (1997).
*148Appellant testified that he told the officers that they could not enter the motel room; the officers’ testimony was diametrically opposite — that appellant said “you may come in.” The Circuit Court is charged with resolving factual conflicts because it is in a position to assess the demeanor and credibility of witnesses, and it did so here by accepting the police testimony and rejecting appellant’s testimony of what occurred before the officers’ entry into the motel room. Unless clearly erroneous, we are bound by that finding. I do not find the factual finding clearly erroneous. Nonetheless, even accepting the officers’ version of events, the trial court erred in its legal conclusion because the court did not consider whether appellant’s opening of the door and his consent to the search of the room was voluntary in the proper jurisprudential context of whether he was seized and whether that seizure was lawful within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment and Article 26.
Evidence obtained by the police as a direct result of an illegal seizure or search is not admissible against the defendant. See Wong Sun v. United States, 871 U.S. 471, 484, 83 S.Ct. 407, 415, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). Whether a consent to search is voluntary is a mixed question of law and fact. See Ferris, 355 Md. at 368, 735 A.2d at 497; Tariq, 347 Md. at 489, 701 A.2d at 693. In considering the voluntariness of a consent to search following an unlawful seizure by the police, the relevant inquiry is whether the evidence was obtained as a direct result of the illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint. See Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 488, 83 S.Ct. at 417, 9 L.Ed.2d 441; Miles v. State, 365 Md. 488, -, 781 A.2d 787 (2001) (Raker, J., dissenting); McMillian, 325 Md. at 288-89, 600 A.2d at 438. If the connection between the evidence and the illegality is so attenuated as to dissipate the taint, the evidence will not be suppressed. See Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 487, 83 S.Ct. at 417, 9 L.Ed.2d 441. The defendant’s consent must sufficiently be an act of free will to purge the primary taint of the illegal conduct. See Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 486, 83 S.Ct. at 416-17, 9 L.Ed.2d 441.
*149No one factor is dispositive. Factors that courts must consider in determining whether the consent to search was an act of free will that was independent of the primary illegality are the “temporal proximity of the arrest and the statements [consent], the presence of intervening circumstances, and particularly, the purpose and flagrancy of official misconduct.” Brawn, 422 U.S. at 603-04, 95 S.Ct. at 2261-62, 45 L.Ed.2d 416; United States v. Valencia, 913 F.2d 378, 380-84 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Buchanan, 904 F.2d 349, 353-56 (6th Cir.1990); Ferguson v. State, 301 Md. 542, 548-49, 483 A.2d 1255, 1258 (1984); 3 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 8.2(d), at 189-90 (3d. ed.1996). The Brown attenuation analysis applies to the effectiveness of consent following an illegal seizure, as well as to the admissibility of a statement or a confession. “In Wong Sun, the Court pronounced the principles to be applied where the issue is whether statements and other evidence obtained after an illegal arrest or search should be excluded.” Brown, 422 U.S. at 597, 95 S.Ct. at 2259, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (emphasis added). See, e.g., State v. Blackmore, 186 Ariz. 630, 925 P.2d 1347 (1996); State v. Monge, 173 Ariz. 279, 842 P.2d 1292 (1992). When evidence is obtained pursuant to consent following an illegal seizure by the police, the court must find that the consent was not only voluntary, but it must also not be an exploitation of the prior illegality.
The trial court made no findings as to whether appellant was subject to an illegal detention at the time of his purported consent. Nonetheless, there is little, if any, dispute as to the facts in the record. Appellant is a twenty-two-year-old male with a tenth grade education. The trial judge found that “the officers did knock and they did pound” on the door of appellant’s motel room. In response, appellant asked who was at the door, and the officer said “police.” Appellant opened the door and the officers entered the room, requesting permission to search. It was 11:37 p.m., the officers had visible badges and weapons, the hot tub water in the room was running, and appellant was in his undershorts and in the room with a woman. He was not told that he could decline to consent or, *150for that matter, that he could decline to open the door. As I have indicated, in my view, appellant was unlawfully seized.
Although the common law did not expressly prohibit nighttime searches, there was strong hostility to such searches of dwelling houses. See, e.g., Jones v. United States, 357 U.S. 493, 78 S.Ct. 1253, 2 L.Ed.2d 1514 (1958); United States ex rel. Boyance v. Myers, 398 F.2d 896 (3rd Cir.1968); Hawaii v. Richardson, 80 Hawai'i 1, 904 P.2d 886 (1995) (stating that “[o]ne policy underlying the nighttime search prohibition is protection of the greater expectation of privacy that individuals possess in their homes at night”); Com. v. Grimshaw, 413 Mass. 73, 595 N.E.2d 302 (1992); Thomas M. Cooley, Constitutional Limitations 430 (7th ed.1903). Nighttime searches of dwelling places “were regarded with revulsion because of the indignity of rousing people from their beds.” Com. v. DiStefano, 22 Mass.App.Ct. 535, 541, 495 N.E.2d 328 (1986). The rationale is “that nighttime police intrusion posed a great threat to privacy, violated the sanctity of home, and endangered the police and slumbering citizens.” 2 LaFave, supra, § 4.7(b), at 266. Additionally, the “[ajvoidance of potential violence arising from non-recognition of the official identity of the executing officer also underlies the federal rule restricting authorization of nighttime searches.” Oregon v. Brock, 294 Or. 15, 653 P.2d 543 (1982).
The federal government and many states have enacted nighttime search limitations, requiring more than probable cause to justify the execution of a search warrant on a dwelling place in the nighttime. See, e.g., Fed.R.CrimP. 41;3 Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-1447 (1970) (allowing a nighttime search only when directed by magistrate, after a finding of good cause); CalFenal Code § 1533 (2001) (requiring a showing of good cause to execute a warrant other than between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.); Del.Code Ann. tit. 11, § 2308 (2000) *151(permitting nighttime warrant issuance only when it is “necessary in order to prevent the escape or removal of the person or thing to be searched for”); Idaho Code § 19-4411 (2000) (requiring judicial approval and reasonable cause for a nighttime search, mirroring Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(c)); Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276, § 2 (2001) (requiring judicial approval and reasonable cause for nighttime search); Minn.Stat. § 626.14 (2000) (requiring that the court determine that a nighttime search is necessary to prevent the loss, destruction, or removal of the objects of the search); Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-814.04 (2001) (requiring a warrant to be served in the daytime unless public interest demands that it not be so restricted); Or.Rev.Stat. § 133.565(3) (1999) (restricting search warrant execution to daytime hours unless the warrant permits otherwise); Utah Code Ann. § 77-23-5(1) (1990) (requiring judicial authorization for a nighttime search based on reasonable cause to believe that it is necessary to seize the property prior to it being concealed, destroyed, damaged, or altered, or for other good reason); Ark. R.Crim. P. 13.2(c) (requiring that a warrant authorize a nighttime search and that a judicial officer have reasonable cause to believe that the place to be searched is difficult of speedy access, the objects to be seized are in danger of imminent removal, or the warrant can only be safely or successfully executed at nighttime or under circumstances the occurrence of which is difficult to predict with accuracy); Me. R.Crim. P. 41(c) (requiring that the warrant affirmatively authorize execution at a time other than between the hours of a.m. and 7 p.m.); Vt. R.Crim. P. 41(c) (requiring warrant service between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. unless the warrant directs that it may be served at any time).
It strikes me as anomalous that the police should have broader powers to invade a person’s privacy under “knock and talk” procedures, where probable cause or reasonable suspicion are lacking, than when they have secured a search warrant that ordinarily must be served in the daytime.
I agree with the analysis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in United States v. Jerez, 108 F.3d 684 (7th Cir.1997). In its discussion of a “knock and *152talk” case with facts somewhat similar to the one sub judice, the court placed heavy emphasis on the fact that the police intrusion was in the nighttime in its determination of whether there had been a seizure. The court explained:
“In making the assessment as to whether a seizure occurred, the circumstances must, of course, be assessed in terms of the values protected by the Fourth Amendment. Here, the district court, required to assess the totality of the circumstances, failed to consider adequately two significant factors: the place and the time of the encounter. The police confronted the appellants in the middle of the night and sought admission to their dwelling place. Our jurisprudence interpreting the Fourth Amendment has long recognized that police encounters at a person’s dwelling in the middle of the night are especially intrusive. Indeed, the special vulnerability of the individual awakened at the privacy of his place of repose during the nighttime hours to face a nocturnal confrontation with the police was recognized in the common law that antedates our separation from England.”
Id. at 690 (citations omitted). Likewise, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County failed to consider the place and time of the encounter or whether appellant had been detained.
The Jerez court continued:
“Because our law and legal traditions long have recognized the special vulnerability of those awakened in the night by a police intrusion at their dwelling place, our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence counsels that, when a knock at the door comes in the dead of night, the nature and effect of the intrusion into the privacy of the dwelling place must be examined with the greatest of caution. Therefore, in recognizing the particular intrusiveness of nocturnal encounters with the police at one’s dwelling, the courts of appeals have stressed the impact of such encounters on the individual dwelling there. For instance, our colleagues in the First Circuit have noted specifically that the reason for limiting nocturnal searches is to prevent ‘abrupt intrusions on sleeping residents in the dark.’ United States v. Young, 877 *153F.2d 1099, 1104 (1st Cir.1989) (Breyer, J.). Likewise, the Second Circuit has noted the ‘peculiar abrasiveness’ of intrusions by law enforcement officials at night. United States v. Ravich, 421 F.2d 1196, 1201 (2d. Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 834, 91 S.Ct. 69, 27 L.Ed.2d 66 (1970). And the Tenth Circuit, in Harless v. Turner, 456 F.2d 1337, 1338-39 (10th Cir.1972) (citing Villano v. United States, 310 F.2d 680, 684 (10th Cir.1962); United States v. Page, 302 F.2d 81 (9th Cir.1962)), invalidated an individual’s consent to search because it was obtained after the individual was ‘routed’ out of bed in the middle of the night.”
Id. at 690-91.
To find under the circumstances in this case that this late-night “knock and talk” encounter amounted to a Fourth Amendment seizure does not mean that every “knock and talk” encounter is a seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Each case must be judged under the totality of the circumstances. A review of the conduct of the police in the instant case leads to the same conclusion reached by the court of appeals in Jerez. The time was 11:37 p.m. In response to what the trial court characterized as the “pounding” of three, and perhaps four, police officers directing appellant to open the door, he did so. Handguns were visible, and police badges were then displayed by the officers. The officers announced that they were police and directed appellant to open the door and permit them to search the premises. The officers did not inform appellant that he did not have to open the door or that he did not have to consent to their request to search his motel room.
I reject the State’s argument that “Scott permitted the police to enter his room when he could have ignored the knock on the door.” It hardly would be reasonable for a motel guest, in a room without a peephole in the door, to decline to open the door in response to the officers’ pounding and demand to open the door. Would the room occupant be unreasonable to fear that refusing to open the door might be a health or safety risk? Or a fire? Or an emergency evacuation? The State’s argument that the officers did not block *154Scott’s exit is equally unpersuasive. What was Scott supposed to do at that hour of night, dressed only in his undershorts, with his naked companion in the room? Simply exit the room? It also is not realistic to posit that a reasonable person, having initially opened the door to police, would feel free to terminate the encounter with the police and refuse entry into a motel room.
When a person opens the door under the circumstances presented herein, it is not reasonable to conclude that the person has opened the door voluntarily, when he is merely complying -with the police show of authority and demand to open the door. Cf. Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 550, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 1792, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968). The officers were not required by the Fourth Amendment to inform appellant that he did not have to consent to a search of his room; knowledge of the right to refuse consent to search is not necessary to prove the voluntariness of consent. See Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 117 S.Ct. 417, 136 L.Ed.2d 347 (1996); Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 246, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2057, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). But cf. State v. Ferrier, 136 Wash.2d 103, 960 P.2d 927 (1998) (holding that, under state law, police are required to inform a suspect of the right to refuse consent prior to entering a dwelling). It is, however, a factor to be considered in the determination of the voluntariness of the consent. See Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 235, 93 S.Ct. at 2051, 36 L.Ed.2d 854; Ferris, 355 Md. at 379-80, 735 A.2d at 503.
As the Jerez court observed:
“[TJhere is no rule of private or public conduct which makes it illegal per se, or a condemned invasion of the person’s right of privacy, for anyone openly and peaceably, at high noon, to walk up the steps and knock on the front door of any man’s ‘castle’ with the honest intent of asking questions of the occupant thereof — whether the questioner be a pollster, a salesman, or an officer of the law.”
Jerez, 108 F.3d at 691 (citations omitted). But, when the knocking comes at night, at an hour when most people are in *155bed, and three or four officers are present, with weapons visible, displaying police badges, the same does not hold true.
The Supreme Court of Washington considered the police technique of “knock and talk” in the Ferrier case. The court based its decision entirely on the Washington State Constitution and, thus, the holding is not authority when considering the “knock and talk” under the Fourth Amendment. Nonetheless, the court’s rationale is persuasive:
“Central to our holding is our belief that any knock and talk is inherently coercive to some degree. While not every knock and talk effort may be accompanied by as great a show of force as was present here, we believe that the great majority of home dwellers confronted by police officers on their doorstep or in their home would not question the absence of a search warrant because they either (1) would not know that a warrant is required; (2) would feel inhibited from requesting its production, even if they knew of the warrant requirement; or (3) would simply be too stunned by the circumstances to make a reasoned decision about whether or not to consent to a warrantless search. In this context, Ferrier’s testimony, which was supported by the officers, that she was afraid and nervous seems totally reasonable. Indeed, we are not surprised that, as noted earlier, an officer testified that virtually everyone confronted by a knock and talk accedes to the request to permit a search of their home.”
Ferrier, 960 P.2d at 933.
The court held that, in order to satisfy the state constitutional right to privacy, and in order for the consent to search to be voluntary, a person must be advised that he or she could refuse to consent to search. See id. at 934. The court stated:
“We believe that the expectation of privacy in the home is clearly ‘one which a citizen of this state should be entitled to hold,’ because ‘the home receives heightened constitutional protection.’ In light of the importance that we attach to that right in Washington, we are satisfied that public policy supports adoption of a rule that article I, section 7 [of the *156Washington constitution] is violated whenever the authorities’ fail to inform home dwellers of their right to refuse consent to a warrantless search. After all, as we noted earlier, we have already held that the failure to warn is a factor to be employed in assessing the voluntariness of consent under the more permissive Fourth Amendment standard. In our judgment, further protection for individuals in their home is necessary because, unlike a search warrant, a search resulting from a knock and talk need not be supported by probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion, and the constitutionality of the search might otherwise only be reviewed, if ever, months after the search was conducted at an optional ... suppression hearing.”
Id. (internal citations omitted). The court adopted the following rule:
“[W]hen police officers conduct a knock and talk for the purpose of obtaining consent to search a home, and thereby avoid the necessity of obtaining a warrant, they must, prior to entering the home, inform the person from whom consent is sought that he or she may lawfully refuse to consent to the search and that they can revoke, at any time, the consent that they give, and can limit the scope of the consent to certain areas of the home. The failure to provide these warnings, prior to entering the home, vitiates any consent given thereafter.”
Id. The same holds true whether we are talking about a private dwelling house, an apartment house, a condominium, motel or hotel room, or the like.
I would hold that the totality of the circumstances surrounding this encounter — the late hour of the episode, the presence of multiple officers, the visible weapons, the pounding on the door, the commands and requests to open the door — makes clear that a seizure took place. The record does not support the conclusion that a reasonable person in appellant’s position would have felt free to ignore the officers and to continue about his business. A reasonable person in this situation would conclude that the officers would not leave unless the *157door was opened. Once appellant had opened the door for the officers, it is unlikely that appellant would have felt free to terminate his encounter with police at that point and refuse the subsequent search of his hotel room. Therefore, appellant was seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment on the night in question. Inasmuch as the State concedes that the officers did not have reasonable suspicion or probable cause to seize appellant, the seizure was unlawful. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
Chief Judge BELL and Judge ELDRIDGE have authorized me to state that they join in this dissent.

. The trial court found that the police "did knock and they did pound. They asked for permission and he granted it.” The court concluded that the "entrance of the police into the room is with a voluntary consent of the Defendant.”

. This case is more like the bus encounter in Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991), than an encounter on an open street. Therefore, as the majority recognizes, see maj. op. at 137-138, the test for assessing whether a seizure has occurred is *147whether a reasonable person would feel free to decline the officers’ requests or otherwise terminate the encounter and not whether a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave, the test applicable to encounters on a public street.

. Fed.R.Crim.P. 41(c) provides: "The warrant shall be served in the daytime, unless the issuing authority, by appropriate provision in the warrant, and for reasonable cause shown, authorizes its execution at times other than daytime.” For a history of the rule, see Gooding v. United States, 416 U.S. 430, 94 S.Ct. 1780, 40 L.Ed.2d 250 (1974).