Court Opinion

ID: 9610132
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:36:58.994713+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:56.713080
License: Public Domain

Guy, J.
(concurring)—For the reasons stated in my concurrence in State v. Little, 116 Wn.2d 488, 806 P.2d 749 (1991), I concur in the majority's holding that a lawful stop was made in this case on reasonable suspicion of criminal trespass. I cannot agree with the majority that the trial court was correct in ruling that the investigatory stop "included the justifiable demand" that the appellant open his hand. Majority opinion, at 511.
The search of Glover's closed fist was made during the period the appellant was stopped and prior to his formal arrest. The demand to search the appellant's hand could not have been lawfully made as part of a Terry patdown, which should involve a possible weapon as the object of the search. Rather, the command made by the officer that Glover open his hand followed the officers' noticing a clear plastic bag protruding from Glover's closed right hand. Apparently neither the trial court nor the majority has concluded, however, that the officers possessed probable cause to arrest the appellant for narcotics possession at this point. The majority states at page 515 that the officers had only a "reasonable suspicion" that the appellant was in possession of narcotics. Nevertheless, if the officers' Terry stop and investigation provided them with probable cause to believe the crime of criminal trespass was being committed in their presence, this would justify the arrest and search of the appellant.
The right of police officers contemporaneously to search, without a search warrant, the person of one lawfully *517arrested applies to arrest for misdemeanors committed in the presence of the officer. The justification for such a search is to uncover fruits of the crime involved, to thwart destruction of evidence, and/or to discover and seize instruments which might aid in the person's escape. State v. Henneke, 78 Wn.2d 147, 149, 470 P.2d 176 (1970); State v. Greene, 75 Wn.2d 519, 521, 451 P.2d 926 (1969). Furthermore, evidence seized incident to a lawful arrest procedure may be used to prosecute for a crime other than the one for which the arrest was being made. Greene, at 521. In Greene, the officer's original reason for arresting the defendant was disturbance of the peace. The officer discovered narcotics on the defendant's person during the arrest and the defendant was convicted of violating the Uniform Narcotic Drug Act. In this case Glover was prosecuted for possession of cocaine after he was seized for criminal trespass.
The search of Glover's closed hand preceded Glover's formal arrest for the possession of cocaine, but was still a lawful search incident to arrest. A warrantless search can take place even before formal arrest as long as the police had probable cause for an arrest independent of what was uncovered in the search. As long as probable cause to arrest precedes the search, formal arrest is not required beforehand to justify the warrantless search incident to arrest. Rawlings v. Kentucky, 448 U.S. 98, 110-11, 65 L. Ed. 2d 633, 100 S. Ct. 2556 (1980).
Brachtenbach and Andersen, JJ., concur with Guy, J.