Court Opinion

ID: 9588057
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:29:22.121209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:56.941098
License: Public Domain

Sognier, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Motions to suppress evidence obtained in violation of an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights arose as a practical means of insuring such rights against the intrusion of overzealous police. See Elkins v. United States, 364 U. S. 206, 217 (80 SC 1437, 4 LE2d 1669). I view the evidence in this case in the same manner as the majority, that is, that when the police officer “checked” the cooler, he opened and looked into it. The majority view this, as do I, as an unwarranted invasion of appellee’s rights. I diverge from the majority opinion at this point, however, as I do not believe we can say that in one instant the police officer was engaged in an illegal search and the next instant was engaged in a legal search under the “plain view” doctrine. See generally Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U. S. 471, 485 (83 SC 407, 9 LE2d 441). To do so is to erode the purpose of a motion to suppress as a sanction against illegally obtained evidence. In effect, it is an effort to graft a healthy limb onto a “poisonous tree.”
Further, in regard to application of the “plain view” doctrine, the Supreme Court of the United States has held that “the ‘plain view’ doctine may not be used to extend a general exploratory search from one object to another until something incriminating at last emerges(Emphasis supplied.) Coolidge v. New Hampshire 403 *417U. S. 443, 466 (91 SC 2022, 29 LE2d 564).
Applying the rule set forth in Coolidge to the facts of the instant case, I note initially that the police officer had no prior justification or probable cause for an intrusion into the car to examine the cooler. Further, the “plain view” doctrine is not applicable, for the police officer’s finding of the marijuana was not inadvertent. Coolidge, supra, at 468-469. On the contrary, it was the result of an item by item exploratory search, both visual and manual, of the interior of appellant’s car, and as stated in Coolidge, the “plain view” doctrine may not be used to extend a general exploratory search from one object to another until something incriminating is found. See also, Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U. S. 557, 571-572 (89 SC 1243, 22 LE2d 542). This is exactly what the police officer in the instant case was doing. When he found nothing incriminating in the cooler he continued his illegal search of the car until he found something which appeared to be incriminating. Such conduct is prohibited by Coolidge, supra. For these reasons I would affirm the ruling of the trial court.