Court Opinion

ID: 9785342
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:22:28.709041+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:17.004938
License: Public Domain

Malone, J.,
concurring: I concur with the result reached by the majority. However, I write separately to make what may be an inconsequential distinction between Miguel Diaz-Ruiz’ consent to a search of his vehicle and his consent to additional questioning by Trooper Christopher Shane Nicholas.
The majority concludes that the scope of the stop was unlawfully extended once Nicholas had dispelled his suspicion of the reason for the stop. I agree. The majority further concludes that Diaz-Ruiz’ subsequent consent to search was not sufficiently attenuated from the prior unlawful detention so as to purge the taint of the unlawful detention. I agree with this conclusion, but I think it skips a step in the analysis. Before determining whether Diaz-Ruiz voluntarily consented to a search of his vehicle, we must first address whether he voluntarily consented to additional questioning by Nicholas.
*342The State argues that when Nicholas returned the documents to Diaz-Ruiz and momentarily stepped away from the truck, the traffic stop ended and the encounter became consensual when Diaz-Ruiz agreed to answer additional questions. The State relies on State v. Thompson, 284 Kan. 763, Syl. ¶ 9, 166 P.3d 1015 (2007), which holds that an initial traffic stop can subsequently become a consensual encounter if, under the totality of the circumstances, the law enforcement officer s conduct conveys to a reasonable person that he or she is free to refuse the requests or otherwise end the encounter. The State argues that Diaz-Ruiz voluntarily agreed to answer additional questions after Nicholas concluded the stop. The State then asserts that after the encounter between Nicholas and Diaz-Ruiz became consensual, Diaz-Ruiz voluntarily consented to a search of the truck.
However, Thompson is distinguishable from the present case because when the law enforcement officer in Thompson requested the driver to consent to additional questions, the encounter had not been “tainted” by an unlawful detention. Here, as we have concluded, the scope of the stop was unlawfully extended once Nicholas had dispelled his suspicion that the ladder was improperly secured in the truck bed.
If Diaz-Ruiz had voluntarily consented to additional questioning by Nicholas, then the encounter would have become consensual and Diaz Ruiz’ subsequent consent to the vehicle search might have been lawful. But Diaz-Ruiz’ consent to additional questioning by Nicholas was not voluntary for the same reason the majority concluded that his consent to search was not voluntary, i.e., the consent was not sufficiently attenuated from the prior unlawful detention so as to purge the taint of the unlawful detention.
Stated differently, there are two separate and distinct “consents” that must be addressed in the analysis of the suppression issue. The first is Diaz-Ruiz’ consent to additional questioning by Nicholas. Only if that consent is found to be voluntary do we need to determine whether the subsequent consent to search the vehicle was voluntary. Because I conclude that Diaz-Ruiz never voluntarily consented to additional questioning by Nicholas, it follows that *343Diaz-Ruiz remained unlawfully detained by Nicholas, and any-evidence seized thereafter must be suppressed.