Court Opinion

ID: 9785560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 22:13:08.319253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:29.896510
License: Public Domain

SUTIN, Chief Judge (dissenting). {15} I respectfully dissent. I would reverse and hold that the district court search warrant relating to the two packages at the UPS store was based on probable cause. The district court judge issuing the warrant determined that the officer’s affidavit established probable cause for issuance of the search warrant. {16} Were no narcotics detection dog involved in this case, the majority would have to decide whether the circumstances without canine involvement were sufficient to establish probable cause for the search warrant. Wording in the majority opinion aside, it is clear to me that the majority must be of the view that the circumstances would be sufficient were there no alert failure,1 since the majority goes out of its way to determine that the alert failure negates probable cause. Otherwise, if the majority viewed the circumstances, absent the alert failure, as insufficient to establish probable cause, the district court’s suppression order would be affirmable, leaving the majority with no reason to address the significance of the alert failure. In my view, the issue is whether the majority should even have considered alert failure. For reasons actually set out in the majority opinion, I do not think so. {17} It appears that in prior decisions this Court has given strong presumptive weight to a dog alert, such that an alert alone can establish probable cause. See State v. De Jesus-Santibanez, 119 N.M. 578, 582, 893 P.2d 474, 478 (Ct.App.1995) (stating that a dog alert “gave the officers probable cause to search the vehicle”); State v. Kaiser, 91 N.M. 611, 615, 577 P.2d 1257, 1261 (Ct.App. 1978) (Wood, C.J., concurring in part and dissenting in part, with Hernandez, J., specially concurring in C.J. Wood’s statement) (stating that the accuracy of detection of marijuana by a dog not being contested, “[t]he detection ... in itself, provided probable cause for [the] defendant’s arrest”). However, as the majority indicates, the eases do not contain a critical examination of the reliability of dog sniffs and alerts for probable cause determination purposes. We have noted that the Tenth Circuit has consistently held that “an alert by a dog that is properly trained and certified in the detection of illegal drugs is sufficient to establish probable cause for a warrantless search.” State v. Snyder, 1998-NMCA-166, ¶ 9, 126 N.M. 168, 967 P.2d 843. Because of the reliability given to a dog alert and based on articles and foreign case law indicating low error rate, the majority gives strong presumptive weight to the failure to alert. With that presumptive weight in hand, the majority holds that without a satisfactory explanation for the alert failure, the failure must be given such strong and substantial weight as to require the conclusion that the district court judge in the present case erred in determining that probable cause existed to issue the search warrant. I do not think that the record is sufficiently developed in this case for that holding. I acknowledge that the defendant has no opportunity at the time a warrant is sought and issued to create any sort of record. But the police officers do have that opportunity, and the magistrate judge or district court judge can require a more complete record, as I discuss later in this dissent. {18} I do think that the State has the burden to explain an alert failure, if it can, and the failure to satisfy that burden ought to be a part of the mix in considering the evidentiary sufficiency for probable cause for a search warrant. But how do we determine the weight to be given to an unexplained alert failure? In the present case, there exists no evidence in the record, including any sort of case-specific evidence of reliability, that would support a conclusion as to the meaning, significance, or weight to be attached to a failure to alert. There is only a strong presumptive weight now given by the majority to a failure to alert, based for the most part on this Court’s previously unexamined presumptive reliability and weight given to an alert. {19} There is a certain reasonableness in the majority’s thinking that, if we are to give strong presumptive weight to a dog alert without having made a critical examination of the reliability generally or even specifically of canine narcotics sniffs and alerts, see Majority Opinion ¶ 5, we ought to be able to give the same strong presumptive weight to an unexplained alert failure. The majority, therefore, does raise a valid question, namely, that “if narcotics detection dogs are so unreliable that their failure to alert can be dismissed by a [district judge] without engaging in a case-specific examination of why the dog failed to alert, then we question whether courts should routinely rely on alerts by narcotics detection dogs to support a finding of probable cause.” Majority Opinion, ¶ 7. {20} But I am concerned whether the record in this case or the status of the law in New Mexico presents this Court with the prerogative of choosing to apply the weight it does to negate probable cause. If general applicability of underlying evidence of reliability is missing in New Mexico law, and if case-specific evidence of reliability is missing in the particular case before the Court, I do not think that it is particularly wise or useful to attempt to engage in a weight application as the majority does here. I would prefer a more developed record on which to examine the reliability of, and to determine the weight to be given to, alerts and alert failures, before we venture into presumptive standards or into weighing an unexplained alert failure for probable cause determinations. {21} Thus, in deciding the present case, as the record stands I would not give such weight to the alert failure as to negate probable cause. We should await cases with better records on reliability before venturing into a full-scale analysis and decision as to weight as the majority has done in the present case. {22} In the present case, the UPS store manager knew who Defendant was. He had mailed packages from the store before, but this was the first time he appeared nervous and stated that he did not know what was in the package. Several circumstances create more than a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct. These include Defendant’s nervousness, his inability or unwillingness to state what was in the package, his later recollection that a book was inside when the store manager said that the package would have to be opened, his statement that he was sending the package to his son when the addressee’s last name was different than Defendant’s last name, the store manager’s obvious suspicions, the packaging indicating that Defendant was likely lying to the store manager, the store manager’s fairly obvious training and her behavior in regard to suspicious use of common carrier delivery for drug activity, and the officer’s generally expressed training and experience. {23} Furthermore, the officer stated that the UPS store manager observed two containers inside a vacuum sealed bag, each wrapped with duct tape; that the officer himself observed the bag and also a Crystal Light cylinder wrapped with gray duct tape and a square Ferrero candy box also wrapped on the ends with gray duct tape; and that the officer knew from training and experience that “often times narcotics are packaged in unusual containers, wrapped with duct tape, and vacuum sealed, to make the narcotics less detectable by narcotic detection canines” and also that “narcotics are often mailed to other places using common carriers such as UPS.” Majority Opinion, ¶ 2. {24} Thus, in my view, the affidavit of the officer contained enough information for a probable cause determination. With no evidence and standards yet developed as to the weight to be given to an alert failure, I have difficulty giving any particular weight to the alert failure, much less the weight given by the majority in negating probable cause established by the other circumstances. Before requiring district court and magistrate court judges in the future to give a particular presumptive weight to an unexplained alert failure, I would like better developed facts and studies by the parties in an evidentiary hearing. Also, it would seem that, at the very least, an affidavit relating to the dog and its handler showing successful and unsuccessful alert rates and relevant characteristics of the dog in that regard and in regard to its reliability might go far in assisting judges who are asked to issue search warrants. {25} The experience and training of police officers and of the common carrier or mail employees should be a probative ingredient in the probable cause analysis. It is clear that we “look to the totality of the circumstances to determine if probable cause is present,” and “we give deference to a magistrate’s decision, and to an officer’s observations, experience, and training[.]” State v. Nyce, 2006-NMSC-026, ¶¶ 10-11, 139 N.M. 647, 137 P.3d 587. In the present case, the circumstances are not “completely innocent in themselves.” Contra State v. Zelinske, 108 N.M. 784, 787, 779 P.2d 971, 974 (Ct.App. 1989), overruled on other grounds by State v. Bedolla, 111 N.M. 448, 806 P.2d 588 (Ct.App. 1991). Nor should they be considered generally descriptive of the circumstances involving hundreds of innocent persons sending packages by a common carrier. See id. (stating, with regard to a search of a container in a vehicle, the facts relied on for probable cause were “used much more frequently for entirely innocent purposes than for transporting narcotics” and citing State v. Anderson, 107 N.M. 165, 169, 754 P.2d 542, 546 (Ct.App.1988), for the proposition that the “facts relied on as part of drug courier profile were generally descriptive of hundreds of innocent persons traveling throughout New Mexico on the interstate every day”). {26} While the affidavit should have been a bit more specific in regard to the officer’s training and experience, the general statements of his training and experience, as well as Defendant’s very suspicious behavior of indicating first that he did not know what was in the box and, after being told that the package would have to be opened, stating that a book was in the box, and the UPS store manager’s and officer’s observations of the actual contents, tip the scale in my view in favor of probable cause despite the lack of details of the officer’s specific training and experience. I have no problem deferring to the judgment of the district court judge who issued the search warrant. I am not prepared in this particular case to apply weight to the alert failure with the consequence of negating sufficiency of the facts which support probable cause. {27} In conclusion, because I think that the circumstances objectively and reasonably are sufficient to constitute probable cause for the issuance of the district court search warrant notwithstanding the alert failure, I would reverse the district court’s grant of Defendant’s suppression request.  . The officer stated and the district court judge that issued the warrant found that the "narcotics detection dog ... did not indicate a positive response for the presence of narcotics.” I will refer to this as a failure to alert or as an alert failure.