Court Opinion

ID: 9792443
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:29:30.829961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:42.883317
License: Public Domain

*1088ROVIRA, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in that part of the majority opinion which reverses the trial court’s order as to Hazelhurst, and dissent to the affirmance of the suppression order as to Jefferson.
With reference to the investigatory stop, I disagree with the conclusion of the majority that, under the facts and circumstances present here, the “detention ... was beyond the ambit of an investigatory stop, [and] it must be supported by probable cause.” The record reflects that the defendants, upon being stopped by the police, agreed to wait for the investigating officer to arrive. They were not ordered from their truck, frisked, or questioned beyond the initial identification. They voiced no objection to the 20- or 30-minute wait necessitated by the distance and rugged mountain country which the investigating officer had to traverse in order to arrive at the scene.
A detention of 20 to 30 minutes is permissible if made with the consent of the person being detained. See Florida v. Royer, - U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983).
Based on the facts stated in the majority opinion and my reading of the record, there is absolutely nothing to support a conclusion of involuntary detention, and, therefore, probable cause was not necessary to support the investigatory stop.
Since I conclude that there was no impermissible detention of either of the defendants, I do not subscribe to the conclusion reached in the majority opinion that the arrest of Jefferson “which occurred as a result of the impermissible detention, was not based upon information supplied by the investigatory officer and therefore was not supported by probable cause.” (at 1086). The investigating officer, prior to making personal contact with the defendants, knew that a toilet kit found in a knapsack at the cache site contained an airline identification tag with the name “Jeff Jefferson” on it. After arriving at the scene where the defendants had been stopped, he had, based on the totality of the evidence, probable cause to arrest Jefferson. Not only was his name tag found at the cache area, but his presence with Hazelhurst in the remote and desolate area, along with the evidence he saw in the back of the truck (planting boxes and farm equipment which matched the items that were in the cache when it was initially discovered), was sufficient to establish probable cause for Jefferson’s arrest.
I would reverse the suppression order of the district court as to both defendants and remand for further proceedings.
I am authorized to say that Chief Justice HODGES joins me in this concurrence and dissent.