Court Opinion

ID: 9511062
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:01:42.671651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:10.149869
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE REGNIER
delivered the Opinion of the Court.
¶1 The State appeals an Order of the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County, granting the motion to suppress filed by Defendant Samuel B. Palmer (“Palmer”). We reverse.
¶2 We address the following issue on appeal:
¶3 Did the District Court err in granting Palmer’s motion to suppress?
BACKGROUND
¶4 On February 28, 2001, District Judge John W. Larson issued a search warrant for a Chevrolet school bus registered to Palmer. The search warrant application was based on a tip from an informant and video surveillance, among other information. Law enforcement executed the search warrant that same day. Based on the fruits of the search, the Missoula County Attorney filed an Information against Palmer charging him with two felonies and a misdemeanor: Count I: criminal possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute; Count II: possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture; and Count III: criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.
¶5 Palmer filed a motion to suppress, alleging the search warrant application (“Application”) did not establish probable cause. District Judge John S. Henson granted the motion to suppress. The State appeals the suppression.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶6 We review a district court’s grant of a motion to suppress “to *48determine whether the court’s findings of fact are clearly erroneous and whether its interpretation and application of the law are correct.” City of Cut Bank v. Bird, 2001 MT 296, ¶ 18, 307 Mont. 460, ¶ 18, 38 P.3d 804, ¶ 18.
DISCUSSION
¶7 Did the District Court err in granting Palmer’s motion to suppress?
¶8 Detective Scott R. Brodie (“Brodie”) of the Missoula Police Department applied for a search warrant for a 1975 Chevrolet school bus and a 1970 Suburban, both registered to Palmer. The Application states that the tip about Palmer first came from Joseph Vollstedt (‘Vollstedt”). On December 20, 2000, Brodie had executed a search warrant in Vollstedt’s home and found a large amount of marijuana and over $3700 in cash. Vollstedt was arrested and interviewed by the police. He admitted to the police that he sold marijuana in the Missoula area.
¶9 After spending a night in jail, Vollstedt agreed to cooperate with the police and act as a confidential informant, but would not allow them to record the information he gave them. Brodie later decided to name Vollstedt in the search warrant application because Vollstedt breached his agreement to cooperate with the police after his release from jail. Vollstedt told the police that “Sam” had sold marijuana to him. He did not know Sam’s last name or his street address, but told the police that Sam had sold marijuana from a multi-colored school bus parked in an alley near the intersection of South 6th West and some railroad tracks and a foot trail. Vollstedt believed Sam lived in the school bus.
¶10 Vollstedt also told the police that he had known Sam for about one and a half years and that he purchased marijuana from Sam on at least eight occasions. Vollstedt provided details about Sam’s operation, such as how much Sam charged for the marijuana, a description of the scale Sam used to measure the marijuana, and how Sam sorted the bills and locked the money in a safe. Vollstedt described Sam as being in his early twenties, approximately 6-feet tall, and weighing approximately 175 pounds with short blond hair. Vollstedt further informed the police that Sam drove an older blue Chevrolet Suburban.
¶11 Brodie corroborated Vollstedt’s tip by driving around the area described, looking for the bus. Brodie observed the bus as well as the Suburban, both of which were registered to Sam Palmer, in the area Vollstedt described. Brodie, along with Detective Dobie, attempted to *49farther corroborate Vollstedt’s tip by conducting periodic “drive-bys” of the bus and establishing video surveillance.
¶12 Further investigation revealed that Sam Palmer was not a registered tenant at the rental property behind which the bus was parked. Ernest Portis lived in the basement apartment and Timothy Foley and Javier Yocham lived upstairs. Brodie learned that Sam Palmer was a friend of Foley and Yocham, and they allowed Palmer to park his bus in their driveway. The detectives also obtained several loads of garbage that had been picked up from the residence.
¶13 The surveillance camera captured seven video tapes, each showing three days of activity at the rear door of the school bus. According to the search warrant application, the videos indicate that the bus is controlled by a subject who fits Palmer’s description. The subject arrived at the bus between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and left and returned to the bus several times a day, often in a blue Chevrolet Suburban. Visitors arrived periodically, knocked on the back door of the bus, and spent five to ten minutes inside the bus. The Application noted that no other houses in the neighborhood had as many vehicles visiting. One such vehicle the detectives observed in front of the house was registered to Teresa Franceschi, whose car was seen around the same time period parked in front of another house in which drugs were seized.
¶14 The Application also included a significant amount of information Brodie and Dobie obtained from the trash behind the house. The State concedes that some of the garbage evidence, namely the garbage with marijuana residue which was collected February 23, 2001, had no directly identifiable connection to Palmer and was not properly included in the search warrant application.
¶15 Judge Larson signed the Application on February 28, 2001, and it was executed the same day. Based upon the fruits of the search, Palmer was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor: Count I: criminal possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute; Count II: possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture; and Count III: criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.
¶16 On October 24, 2001, Judge Henson granted Palmer’s motion to suppress. Judge Henson concluded that the informant, Vollstedt, lacked reliability, that time frames as to Vollstedt’s alleged purchases from Palmer were unclear, his information was not sufficiently corroborated, associations between Palmer and drug activity were tenuous, and evidence found in the trash could not be directly linked to Palmer. The State appeals the suppression of the evidence obtained *50during execution of the search warrant.
¶17 In State v. Reesman, 2000 MT 243, 301 Mont. 408, 10 P.3d 83, we set forth a step-by-step analysis for determining whether information given to the police by an informant is sufficient to establish probable cause. First, if the informant is anonymous, corroboration of the informant’s information through other sources is necessary. If the informant is not anonymous, we then ask whether the informant’s information is based on his or her personal observation of the described criminal activity. If the information is not based on personal observation, again, independent corroboration is required. Reesman, 2000 MT 243, ¶¶ 28-30, 301 Mont. 408, ¶¶ 28-30, 10 P.3d 83, ¶¶ 28-30.
¶18 Next, if the information is based on personal observations of a non-anonymous person, we must determine whether the informant is reliable. Three categories of informants exist for purposes of determining reliability: (1) confidential informants; (2) informants who make an admission against interest; and (3) concerned citizens. First, confidential informants are not deemed reliable unless the informant has given reliable and accurate information in the past. Without a sworn statement by a law officer that an informant has been reliable and provided accurate information in the past, independent corroboration is required. Second, if an informant makes an unequivocal admission against interest, further corroboration is not required. "[A]dmissions of crime, like admissions against proprietary interests, carry their own indicia of credibility - sufficient at least to support a finding of probable cause to search.” Reesman, 2000 MT 243, ¶ 33, 301 Mont. 408, ¶ 33, 10 P.3d 83, ¶ 33. Finally, informants motivated by "good citizenship” are deemed reliable if they provide information that demonstrates a sufficient degree of the nature of the circumstances under which the incriminating information became known. Reesman, 2000 MT 243, ¶¶ 31-39, 301 Mont. 408, ¶¶ 31-39, 10 P.3d 83, ¶¶ 31-39.
¶19 Here, it is undisputed that Vollstedt was not a "concerned citizen.” Palmer contends that Vollstedt was a confidential informant. Vollstedt provided the police with information about Palmer on the condition that he be treated as a confidential informant. Brodie used Vollstedt’s name in the search warrant application only after he voided his agreement to cooperate. Therefore, Palmer would have us treat Vollstedt as a confidential informant, requiring corroboration, despite the fact that Vollstedt’s identity was revealed in the search warrant application.
¶20 The State argues that Vollstedt provided the tip in the course of *51making an admission against interest, and thus no further corroboration is necessary. During Vollstedt’s interview with Brodie, Vollstedt admitted to eight separate purchases of marijuana from Palmer over an eighteen-month period. Four of the purchases had been for a quarter-pound of marijuana and four had been for a half-pound. Palmer argues Vollstedt did not give the tip in the course of making an admission against interest because he had admitted to his involvement in the distribution of marijuana in Missoula prior to naming “Sam” as his supplier. Palmer further argues that the time frames as to Vollstedt’s alleged purchases were unclear, and as such stale.
¶21  We need not decide whether Vollstedt should be treated as a confidential informant or as an informant who made an unequivocal admission against interest in the course of providing his tip. Regardless of how we assess Vollstedt’s reliability, the search warrant application demonstrated probable cause because it showed sufficient corroboration of Vollstedt’s tip. The video surveillance of the back of the school bus indicated a high volume of frequent and short-term traffic to and from the bus, which Brodie, based upon his training and experience as a narcotics detective, determined to be consistent with the distribution of illegal drugs.
¶22  The District Court essentially determined that the video surveillance revealed no actual criminal activity. While this determination may be accurate, it does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that probable cause did not exist. Corroborative evidence need not show actual criminal activity. In State v. Griggs, 2001 MT 211, ¶ 50, 306 Mont. 366, ¶ 50, 34 P.3d 101, ¶ 50, we stated that the “[N]eed for ‘adequate law enforcement investigation’ ... means that, when required, the subsequent corroboration of an informant’s tip must reveal indicia of human conduct that becomes suspicious when viewed in conjunction with the incriminating information received from the informant concerning a suspect’s particular criminal activity.”
¶23  Accordingly, we conclude that the search warrant application did show probable cause, and the District Court erred in granting the motion to suppress evidence obtained during execution of the search warrant. Reversed.
CHIEF JUSTICE GRAY, JUSTICES NELSON, COTTER, LEAPHART and RICE concur.