Court Opinion

ID: 9793128
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:43:15.644536+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:01:15.971059
License: Public Domain

*646Schultheis, C. J.
(dissenting) — This record does not show that Yakima County Deputy Sheriff J.L. Aguilar had a reasonable suspicion Ruben Villarreal, Jr., was engaged in criminal activity. The resulting seizure and search were therefore unjustified.
First, the deputy was not engaged in a community caretaking function when he seized Mr. Villarreal. The community caretaking exception to the warrant requirement involves police-citizen contact initiated for noncriminal, noninvestigatory purposes. State v. Lynch, 84 Wn. App. 467, 477, 929 P.2d 460 (1996). To determine whether a community caretaking encounter is reasonable, the trial court must balance the individual’s interest in freedom from police interference against the public’s interest in having the police perform the caretaking function. State v. Mennegar, 114 Wn.2d 304, 313, 787 P.2d 1347 (1990); Lynch, 84 Wn. App. at 477. The court did not balance the conflicting interests of Mr. Villarreal and the community, on the record, because it did not apply the community caretaking exception. Consideration of the community caretaking exception is then beyond the scope of this appeal and our authority. We may not substitute our findings for those of the trial court. Sparks v. Douglas County, 127 Wn.2d 901, 910, 904 P.2d 738 (1995); State v. McAlpin, 36 Wn. App. 707, 713, 677 P.2d 185, review denied, 102 Wn.2d 1011 (1984).
Second, and more importantly, the trial court erroneously concluded that the Yakima County Code authorized this seizure. Section 12.05.070 of the Yakima County Code prohibits disposal of human or animal excrement on public or private property. The town of Harrah is, however, a separate municipal corporation and so exercises its police powers within its boundaries. Wash. Const. art. XI, § 11.1 See, e.g., Brown v. City of Cle Elum, 145 Wash. 588, 589, 261 P. 112, 55 A.L.R. 1175 (1927). The Harrah disorderly conduct *647ordinance prohibits disposal of “offensive or nauseous substances[.]” Harrah Town Ordinance No. 56, § 1(29). Here the trial court could not and did not conclude that the Harrah ordinance authorized Mr. Villarreal’s seizure. Urine does not come within the plain meaning of an offensive or nauseous substance.* 2
Ultimately, the question is whether Deputy Aguilar had specific and articulable facts leading to a reasonable belief that Mr. Villarreal was engaged in criminal activity. Any recognized exception to the warrant requirement—like the community caretaking function or the investigatory stop—is limited by the reason that calls it into existence. State v. Ladson, 138 Wn.2d 343, 356, 979 P.2d 833 (1999). The exception may not be used as a pretext to conduct an unrelated criminal investigation. Id. at 357. For the sake of the rule of law let us be realistic—the deputy here did not believe that Mr. Villarreal was disposing of “any rubbish or garbage or other offensive or nauseous substances[.]” Harrah Town Ordinance No. 56, § 1(29). He therefore had no authority to seize Mr. Villarreal.
Review denied at 140 Wn.2d 1008 (2000).

“Any county, city, town or township may make and enforce within its limits all such local police, sanitary and other regulations as are not in conflict with general laws.” Wash. Const. art. XI, § 11.

Webster’s Third International Dictionary 1508, 1566 (1969) defines the terms as follows: (1) nauseous: “causing or such as might be expected to cause nausea”; (2) offensive: “giving painful or unpleasant sensations.”