Court Opinion

ID: 9795810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:39:13.234834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:37:47.821013
License: Public Domain

GOLDEN, J.,
dissenting.
[¶ 25] Although I agree with the Court's opinion on the first issue, I respectfully disagree with its opinion on the second issue. Officer Deskin testified that when he patted down Mr. Fender he felt "a bulge ... that could have been almost anything ... from loose change to something within his pants to a knife. I had no idea what it was." Without further probing the contour or mass of the unseen but felt object until he negated the possibility that Mr. Fender possessed a knife or some other such obvious weapon that Mr. Fender could use to harm the officer, which additional probing is not prohibited by Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 113 S.Ct. 2130, 124 L.Ed.2d 334 (1993), Officer Deskin reached into Mr. Fender's pocket and pulled out a baggy containing a green leafy substance.
[¶ 26] I agree with the Court's statement that "more precise testimony would have been helpful in evaluating this issue." I disagree with the Court's statement that "it is rational to infer from the officer's testimony that the object in [Mr. Fender's] pants pocket was hard (the object felt as if it could have been loose change or a knife, both of which items possess characteristics indicative of a hard object), was of a size or density that it could have been a knife. ..." I disagree that it is rational to infer from the officer's ambiguous and equivocal testimony that the object was hard. The officer testified that the bulge "could have been almost anything from ... loose change to something within his pamts to a knife. I had no idea what it was." (Emphasis supplied). The officer's testimony reveals nothing about the object's size, shape, density or rigidity. Because the test is an objective one, I am unable to conclude from such ambiguous and equivocal testimony that a reasonable officer in those circumstances would have believed that the item could likely be a weapon.
[¶ 23] The district court found in the instant case that Deskin discovered a "large bulge" in appellant's left front pocket. Des-kin did not testify that the bulge was "large" per se, but that the bulge he felt "could resemble anything from loose change to something within his pants to a knife." Although more precise testimony would have been helpful in evaluating this issue, it is rational to infer from the officer's testimony that the object in appellant's pants pocket was hard (the object felt as if it could have been loose change or a knife, both of which items possess characteristics indicative of a hard object), was of a size or density that it could have been a knife, and that the object's precise shape or nature was not discernible through appellant's clothing. Based on the facts presented in the instant case, we conclude that the object reasonably could have been a weapon such as some form of a knife, and Deskin was justified in determining whether it was indeed a weapon.