Court Opinion

ID: 9787306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:14:28.73114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:54.511426
License: Public Domain

MINZNER, Justice (concurring in part and dissenting in part). {21} I concur in part and dissent in part. I concur in the standard of review applied by the Majority Opinion and I concur in affirming the Court of Appeals’ determination that the officers waited only ten seconds after knocking and announcing and before forced entry. Maj. Op. ¶¶ 1, 9, 11. I also concur in affirming the Court of Appeals’ determination that no exigent circumstances existed. Id. ¶ 12. I dissent from the Majority Opinion that ten seconds was a sufficient amount of time for the officers to infer that Defendant refused to answer the door, or to find a constructive refusal to admit. Id. ¶ 17. Therefore, I believe the Court of Appeals did not err in reversing the trial court’s order denying Defendant’s motion to suppress. I would affirm the Court of Appeals’ Opinion in its entirety. {22} Under the totality of circumstances I believe a ten-second wait was not sufficient to conclude that the officers were constructively denied admittance. In ¶ 17, the Majority Opinion relies on “the totality of the circumstances ... particularly the small size of the motel room and the fact that Defendant did not respond in any way,” to repeated knocking and announcing. In my opinion, however, our totality of circumstances analysis also should include the fact that the search warrant was executed on a dark Saturday morning at 6:15, Detective Sharkey testified that he could not recall if there were any lights on in the room when the warrant was executed, and there was no verbal or physical response from within the room after the officers announced their presence. Furthermore, Detective Sharkey testified as follows: The reason I do serve search warrants at such an early time of the day was several fold. The one reason that is of utmost concern is there is a very strong possibility that the person who is going to be the subject of the actual search warrant being served will be resting, be asleep, and it would take them a little bit longer if they were to choose to arm themselves. Absent evidence indicating that Defendant was awake, it is plausible that Defendant was asleep when officers knocked on his motel room door and shouted “Sheriffs Department!” and “Search Warrant.” See State v. Johnson, 2004-NMCA-064, ¶ 15, 135 N.M. 615, 92 P.3d 61 (noting “the officers heard no sounds suggesting that Defendant was awake-either to answer the door or to destroy evidence”). Even though Defendant was standing just inside the door when the officers entered, see Maj. Op. ¶ 3, the officers did not know where Defendant was before they entered the room. Detective Sharkey also could not recall whether Defendant was dressed or in his underwear when officers entered the motel room. It is possible that Defendant was asleep, heard the commotion outside, was awakened, and tried to put some clothes on before the officers broke his door down. Just as we are not sure whether Defendant was awake when the officers announced their entry, the officers also did not know whether Defendant was awake. {23} The Majority Opinion notes that the trial court found that the motel room was no larger than twelve feet by twelve feet, the bed was within three or four feet of the door, and Defendant must have been within twelve feet of the door at the time of the attempted entry; however, it is not clear that the officers were aware of how small the room was or where the bed was located or where Defendant was before they entered. See Maj. Op. ¶ 18. In fact, Detective Sharkey testified, “As I went through the hotel room, I realized it was a very, very small hotel room.” Based on his testimony, it seems reasonable to conclude that the small size of the room was not apparent until after the officers entered Defendant’s room. {24} The early hour on a Saturday, the possibility that Defendant was asleep, and the officers’ lack of knowledge that the room was so small are all factors that should be weighed in our analysis. In my opinion, a ten-second wait under the totality of circumstances was not sufficient and the officers’ noncompliance with the knock and announce rule was not justified. {25} The Court of Appeals analogized the present case to State v. Attaway, 117 N.M. 141, 870 P.2d 103 (1994). See Johnson, 2004-NMCA-064, ¶ 15, 135 N.M. 615, 92 P.3d 61. In Attaway, the police waited ten to fifteen seconds at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday. Id. In the present case, the police waited ten seconds at 6:15 a.m. on a Saturday. Id. The Court of Appeals then distinguished the two cases because in Attaway this Court ultimately concluded that ten to fifteen seconds was acceptable due to exigent circumstances, while there was no exigency in this case. Id. The Court of Appeals concluded that because this Court stated in Attaway that ten to fifteen seconds at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday was an “ ‘extremely short’” period of time, id. (quoting Attaway, 117 N.M. at 153, 870 P.2d at 115), and because no exigencies existed in the present case, “[t]he search was not constitutionally reasonable, and the results of the search should have been suppressed.” Id. I agree with the Court of Appeals’ reasoning and conclusion. {27} Applying a totality of circumstances analysis, I also am not persuaded that ten seconds was a sufficient amount of time to conclude that Defendant refused to answer the door. For this reason, I am not able to join the Majority Opinion in its entirety. I concur in part and I dissent in part. {26} In discussing Attaway, the Majority Opinion states “it was not our intention to create a rule that absent exigency, ten seconds is unreasonable per se, or that ten seconds can never be a sufficient amount of time to infer denial of entry.” Maj. Op. ¶ 16. I agree and I do not think the Court of Appeals was relying on Attaway as a bright-line rule that absent exigent circumstances, ten seconds would never be sufficient. Rather the Court of Appeals was comparing the relevant facts in this appeal with the relevant facts in Attaway. As a matter of law, the Court of Appeals could not determine a constructive refusal to admit based on the facts of this case.