Court Opinion

ID: 9591842
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:08:09.251127+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:48.663564
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Judge
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I respectfully concur in part and dissent in part.
I concur in the result reached by the majority as to appellant Jeremy Francis. With Francis, the officer began to pursue a speeding car being driven within Janesville, and he followed that car to approximately three miles outside the city. Thus, he was working on an offense that had started in his jurisdiction and he had every right to follow it outside his jurisdiction. Then, another car driven by Francis caught his eye, and while watching the Francis vehicle, he noticed it turned without signaling and later crossed over the center line. With the low level of proof we have assigned to “articulable suspicion,” I agree with the majority there was a valid stop of the Francis vehicle. Since the officer had started to follow a speeding car within the City of Janesville, he was, by definition, still in the normal scope and business of his employment when he spotted Francis. These facts bring the ease close enough to the Minnesota Supreme Court’s opinion in State v. Tilleskjor, 491 N.W.2d 893, 894 (Minn.1992).
I respectfully dissent as to appellant Kory Bunde. I disagree with the majority’s reasoning that “[i]n Tilleskjor, the supreme court did not rest its decision on the fact that the arresting officer first observed the defendant within the officer’s jurisdiction [and that w]e must therefore read the statute * * * as authorizing on-duty police officers to operate free from the limitations of their city borders when the policing mission itself commences within the city — regardless of where they first observe a defendant.”
Set that statement out by itself and examine it:
We must therefore read the statute * * * as authorizing on-duty police officers to operate free from the limitations of their city borders when the policing mission itself commences within the city — regardless of where .they first observe a defendant.
Stated simply, I would need the supreme court of a state or the United States Supreme Court to make that blanket statement, *921and then explicitly state that that blanket statement stands by itself with no modifications or qualifications, before I would believe it to be the law. Every single case that I have found involving city police officers, with their defined territorial limits, that has upheld investigations, chases, arrests, search and seizure, etc., outside the limits of their city has always included some facts showing the officer to be within the normal scope and course of employment. Fresh or hot pursuit is a common example. Another is the investigation of a case that started within the city limits, within the officer’s jurisdiction, and then that led to investigation, interviews with potential witnesses, etc., who lived outside the city limits. Other recognized exceptions would be emergency calls from the state highway patrol or the county sheriffs office to all neighboring city policemen in the vicinity to help out with a high-speed chase or other investigation in the area, but outside city limits. There are documented instances of city officers being asked by other law enforcement agencies to act as “backup” outside the city limits. But I find no case, not even Tilleskjor, that says for all blanket purposes, on-duty city police officers have a blanket permission to “operate free from the limitations of their city borders” regardless of the underlying supporting facts.
The Tilleskjor court did not decide whether an officer outside his jurisdiction for no apparent reason could arrest a suspect first seen by the officer outside his jurisdiction. That issue was not before the Tilleskjor court. That is the issue facing this court in Bunde’s case. You see, as the majority correctly points, when Officer Anderson came across Bunde, the facts gave zero rise to any inference that he was on official business outside the jurisdiction. There is no explanation in the record as to why a city police officer from Janesville was roaming around outside of town when he first began to follow a car that had run a stop sign three miles outside town, and while doing so, noticed Bunde “asleep or passed out” in a parked car. Thus, unlike the facts in Francis, where the officer legitimately started out in town, legitimately continued out of town, and legitimately spotted at least some definable articu-lable suspicion, with Bunde, the officer did not start in his jurisdiction and the record shows no explanation as to what he was doing outside his jurisdiction as he moved around keeping the county safe from cars that went through stop signs.
The majority correctly points out that the Tilleskjor court did not base its holding on the fact that the arresting officer in that case began to pursue the defendant while inside the officer’s jurisdiction. But I cannot ignore the factual context of Tilleskjor. The fact is, the arresting officer in Tilleskjor began to pursue the defendant inside the officer’s jurisdiction and then arrested the defendant outside the jurisdiction based on conduct that may or may not have occurred outside the jurisdiction. That the criminal conduct may or may not have occurred outside that officer’s jurisdiction is of no consequence. He properly started his pursuit based on suspected criminal conduct inside his jurisdiction. That is a long recognized and accepted exception.
Here, in contrast, Anderson did not observe Bunde until the two were three miles outside Janesville. The arrest was based solely on Anderson’s observations of Bunde outside Janesville. Anderson did not see Bunde while in Janesville and then follow him across the Janesville city limits. Anderson did not even follow another suspect out of Janesville, as he did with Francis, leading him to encounter Francis clothed with at least an ostensible aura of authority. With Bunde, unlike Tilleskjor, no one knows why Anderson was outside his jurisdiction when he first observed Bunde. These facts do not support a finding that when he arrested Bunde, Anderson was outside his jurisdiction in the course and scope of his employment. I can understand why the trial court struggled with the facts in these two cases and denied jurisdiction to the state in both instances. The facts as to Francis are close. Although I concur with the majority as to Francis, lower than that I cannot go. I conclude the trial court acted properly when it dismissed the ease against appellant Bunde.
Accordingly, in light of the fact that Anderson did not articulate a reason for roaming outside his jurisdiction when he first *922saw Bunde, I find the trial court acted properly when it dismissed the charge against Bunde based on lack of jurisdiction by the arresting officer.