Court Opinion

ID: 9557788
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 16:57:33.204366+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:01.492642
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE ERICKSON
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Assuming arguendo that the police officers were justified in making the investigatory stop in this case, an issue which is very much in doubt, I cannot accept the majority opinion’s conclusion that the officers acted properly in seizing the items on a plain view theory.
The plain view doctrine, as an exception to the warrant requirement, must necessarily be limited by the nature of the items observed in plain view. Accord, Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). Officers do not possess a right to seize any object in their view in order to examine it to determine whether it might indicate criminal activity. Only if an officer has “good reason to believe” that an article is incriminatory evidence can it be seized and examined. Alire v. People, 157 Colo. 103, 402 P.2d 610 (1965).
I am not persuaded by the majority opinion that the officers had “good reason to believe” that the items in issue were incriminating evidence. Both the pliers and the pillowcases were innocuous and insufficient to permit the officers to make a plain view seizure. Even if pliers and pillowcases are sometimes used in the commission of a burglary; such items are not contraband, and their possession is consistent with legal behavior. A man of reasonable caution, who possesses knowledge that these items are sometimes used in illegal behavior, would not be justified in assuming, upon seeing the pliers or pillowcases, that criminal activity was afoot. People v. Ware, 174 Colo. 419, 484 P.2d 103 (1971); accord, United States v. Berenguer, 562 F.2d 206 (2d Cir. 1977); State v. Cook, 115 Ariz. 188, 564 P.2d 877 (1977).
Moreover, the police officers possessed no additional information which might have raised their suspicions to the level of reasonable belief. *42At the time the officers seized the articles, they had no information linking the items or appellee’s automobile to any criminal activity. In fact, the particular burglary for which the appellee was charged was not even reported until several hours after his arrest.
For the above-stated reasons, I would affirm the trial court’s suppression ruling.
MR. JUSTICE LEE has authorized me to say that he joins me in this dissent.