Court Opinion

ID: 9622885
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:24:36.909426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:28:52.753544
License: Public Domain

DAVIDSON, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent because I believe the majority erred in affirming the trial court’s acceptance of a no contest plea conditioned on defendant’s right to appeal the motion to suppress. I also believe the majority incorrectly decided that the motion to suppress should have been granted.
Rather than point out weaknesses in the majority’s recitation of the facts, I offer what I consider to be a complete factual statement of the case but one which highlights certain important aspects. At approximately 11:05 a.m. on May 22, 1986, Delta Airlines Flight No. 565, originating in Florida, began deplaning passengers at the Salt Lake International Airport. Observing were several law enforcement officers involved in a training seminar. Approximately 20 members of different police agencies were training at the airport in several groups. Conducting the training was Sergeant William Pearson of the Metro Dade Police Department, Miami, Florida. Sergeant Pearson, a veteran of over 25 years in police work had spent 19 years enforcing narcotics laws. Subsequent to extensive training in narcotics surveillance, investigation, and enforcement, Sergeant Pearson has supervised the drug interdiction unit, primarily concerned with the Miami International Airport, for nine years. During this time, Sergeant Pearson has taught his specialty at colleges and to other police departments throughout the United States including Los Angeles, Denver, and Gainesville, Florida. Among those at the airport with Sergeant Pearson was Agent Mark Whittaker from the Utah State Narcotics and Liquor Law Enforcement Bureau.
The officers saw defendant leave the aircraft carrying a vinyl suitcase. Sergeant Pearson testified that defendant “stopped momentarily, looked nervously around, waited there for several minutes while other passengers passed him, and then continued on up the concourse.” Agent Whittaker testified that defendant “appeared to be very nervous” when he deplaned and that, while the other passengers walked past him, defendant “kept looking around nervously.” Referring to defendant, Sergeant Pearson indicated to Agent Whittaker, “Let’s take a look at him” or, “Let’s follow him.”
Defendant proceeded up the concourse until he entered a coffee shop after he “looked nervously around again.” Upon exiting the coffee shop, defendant proceeded directly to a bank of telephones separated by partitions. Defendant sat down and picked up a telephone receiver but did not place any money in the machine. Defendant then “put the receiver to his ear, he stood up, looked around, sat back down.” Agent Whittaker testified defendant repeated his behavior two or three times without ever inserting any coins into the telephone. Sergeant Pearson testified defendant stood up above the partition on two occasions and looked in his direction. Further testimony by Agent Whittaker indicated Sergeant Pearson and he were about five feet away. Defendant then picked up his suitcase but, rather than taking the normal route from the telephone area, he edged his way between a glass wall and the telephones allowing him to leave the telephone area beyond where the officers were standing.
At this point, Sergeant Pearson, Agent Whittaker, and one other officer approached defendant and identified themselves as police officers. Sergeant Pearson asked to speak to defendant “for a moment” to which defendant agreed. When asked, defendant showed Sergeant Pearson his airline ticket which was in the name of Sidsel. Sergeant Pearson then asked “Mr. *948Sidsel” for some identification to which defendant replied that his name was not Sid-sel, that the airline had made a mistake, and that he did not have any identification. Defendant did not offer his correct name. When asked if he had “any objections to giving [Sergeant Pearson] a consent to search the suitcase,” defendant replied he would rather not. Sergeant Pearson then thanked defendant and informed him he was “free to leave.” Agent Whittaker testified that after leaving the officers, defendant proceeded further down the concourse to another telephone area and made calls. Defendant then went to the baggage claim area via the escalator. He waited in that area for several minutes, walked around the downstairs area of the terminal, and went outside on at least one occasion. Meanwhile, Sergeant Pearson determined from Delta Airlines that defendant had arrived from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and also obtained the “call-back number” given when Sidsel’s ticket was reserved. Upon checking the telephone number, Sergeant Pearson discovered, “[I]t was no longer a working number. It had been changed to a nonpublished number.” Sergeant Pearson then requested Agent Whittaker to obtain a drug detection dog.
At approximately noon, Officer Brook Plotnik, a dog handler with the West Valley City Police Department, arrived with a drug trained dog. After briefing Officer Plotnik, Sergeant Pearson and Agent Whit-taker approached defendant who was seated outside the terminal with his suitcase. From the first conversation with Sergeant Pearson until this second approach by the officers, no law enforcement officer had approached or talked to defendant. Sergeant Pearson asked defendant if he would submit his bag “to a sniff by a drug detection dog.” Again, defendant answered that “he would rather not.” Defendant was then told by Sergeant Pearson that he and his suitcase were being detained and the suitcase would be presented in a lineup to the drug detection dog. Depending on what happened at the lineup, defendant would be informed of “the next step in the procedure.” Sergeant Pearson placed defendant’s suitcase in a lineup with four other bags in the Delta Airlines baggage makeup area, approximately 10 to 15 minutes after Officer Plotnik’s arrival. The drug detection dog gave a positive alert to defendant’s suitcase. Sergeant Pearson relayed this information to Agent Whittaker who informed defendant of the results of the lineup, placed him under arrest, and informed him of his rights. A search warrant, based on Sergeant Pearson’s affidavit, was obtained. A subsequent search of defendant’s suitcase revealed three bags of cocaine. Agent Whittaker’s report indicates defendant was arrested at 12:25 p.m. Defendant also testified 20 minutes elapsed between the time he was detained and when he was placed under arrest.
Defendant’s pre-trial motion to suppress was heard on July 9, 1986. When asked what actions of the defendant aroused his suspicions, Sergeant Pearson replied:
The ones I have testified to earlier. Number one, his apparent nervous looking about when he got off the plane. The fact that he waited there at the deplaning area before he proceeded on to the concourse to wherever he was going to go. His nervous looking about before he went into what I call the coffee shop.
When I went to the pay phone bank, number three, the fact he was, I would guess, making a phone call. But he kept popping up concerned about my whereabouts and Agent Whittaker’s whereabouts, as opposed to concentrating his conversation with whomever he was trying to call. This what I find a strange way of exiting the phone enclosure instead of going out with ease into an open area to walk between enclosures and a side hole next to a phone enclosure and a windowed area to the concourse. The fact that after he left, refused to give us a consent to search and was allowed to go on his way, his constant popping in and out of the terminal and walking around. And the fact that he, that the phone number that he gave to the airlines was not a working number, which would mean the airline could never call him and tell him his flight had been cancelled, delayed or whatever.
*949All these things, accumulatively speaking, I felt very suspicious.
Upon denial of his motion, defendant pled no contest to unlawful possession of a controlled substance. Defendant’s plea was couched as:
[Defense Counsel]: Your Honor, in view of that ruling, we’re prepared at this time to enter a conditional plea of no contest to the charges.
I would like to have the opportunity to appeal on the motion, and [prosecutor] and I decided, in view of the Utah Supreme Court’s [latest] decision in the Kay [State v. Kay, 717 P.2d 1294 (Utah 1986)] case where they did allow for conditional pleas, that Mr. Sery can enter a plea on the condition that should the Supreme Court find this motion should have been granted, he can withdraw the plea.
I think this may be a new thing to do, but I think it would probably help judicial administration. There’s no sense in going through a trial on facts such as this [sic] and would ask the Court to go along with it. I have explained it to Mr. Sery, he understands it, and he would like to get on with the process rather than wait around for a trial.
[Prosecutor]: That’s correct, your Honor. Defendant’s plea was accepted and he was subsequently sentenced to the Utah State Prison for a period not to exceed five years. The prison sentence was stayed and defendant was placed on probation for a period of 18 months. Probation was stayed pending the issuance of a certificate of probable cause which was signed on September 25, 1986.
CONDITIONAL NO CONTEST PLEA
Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-2 (1982) explains the effect of a no contest plea1 to an indictment or information. Subsection 77-13-2(3) states:
A plea of no contest indicates the accused does not challenge the charges in the information or indictment and if accepted by the court shall have the same effect as a plea of guilty and imposition of sentence may be rendered in the same manner as if a plea of guilty had been entered.
Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-3 (1982) also states, “A plea of no contest may be entered by the accused only upon approval of the court and only after due consideration of the views of the parties and the interest of the public in the effective administration of justice.”
The plea of no contest is treated the same as a plea of guilty; once knowingly and voluntarily entered, there are no issues remaining for trial. State v. Yeck, 566 P.2d 1248, 1249 (Utah 1977). In State v. Beck, 584 P.2d 870, 872 (Utah 1978), the Court wrote, “By a plea of guilty the defendant waived any claim of error on behalf of the officer in saying that he had been identified as the murderer.” A defendant cannot enter a guilty or no contest plea and then base an appeal on objections to the evidence. By entering such a plea, all such objections are waived.
The majority states in footnote 4 that the absence in Utah R.Crim.P. 11, Utah Code Ann. § 77-35-11 (1988), of conditional pleas is not an affirmative bar to such pleas. The majority also cites State v. Kay, 717 P.2d 1294 (Utah 1986), as authority for conditional pleas. This is irrelevant. In Kay, the trial court accepted a guilty plea to three counts of capital homicide in exchange for the promise that defendant would not be sentenced to death. The trial court agreed to impose one of the statutory punishments for the crimes charged and defendant pled guilty “with no strings attached.” There was no plea conditioned on an appeal concerning the state’s ability to prove Kay’s underlying guilt. What the majority fails to understand is that criminal law is established by statute. As such, it must be strictly construed within the statutory bounds. Counsel and the trial court may not invent a new plea by agreement any more than they can agree to add or delete an element of a crime.
*950A further examination of Rule 11 in subsection (e) reveals:
The court may refuse to accept a plea of guilty or no contest and shall not accept such a plea until the court has made the findings:
(4) That the defendant understands the nature and elements of the offense to which he is entering the plea; that upon trial the prosecution would have the burden of proving each of those elements beyond a reasonable doubt; and that the plea is an admission of all those elements (emphasis added)[.]
In light of this rule it is impossible for defendant to enter a no contest plea after his motion to suppress has been denied, yet still base an appeal on that motion. In effect, defendant told the trial court that he was guilty of possession of a controlled substance but that he intended to contest his own admission on appeal. When the trial judge explained the meaning of the no contest plea to defendant, he stated that defendant would still have the right to appeal “because of the stipulated facts in this particular instance here....” This does not comport with the requirements of Rule 11(e). See State v. Gibbons, 740 P.2d 1309, 1313 (Utah 1987), for a strict interpretation of the necessity to comply with Rule 11(e).
INTERLOCUTORY APPEAL
When this case is stripped of its pretensions we find an attempt to circumvent the rules of appellate procedure to force this Court to hear an interlocutory appeal. This is justified and approved by the majority in order to avoid a “pointless and wasteful exercise.” As I read R.Utah Ct.App. 5(d), that is precisely the reason for an interlocutory appeal. However, R.Utah Ct. App. 5(a) provides that a petition seeking permission to appeal must be filed with the Court. The Court may then decide to review or not review. The appellate court, not counsel, and not the lower court, is given the opportunity to determine whether the appeal should be taken and whether further proceedings at the trial level would be desirable or a “pointless and wasteful exercise.” In this case counsel and the trial court decided to allow a direct appeal to this Court without a prior trial. The request by defense counsel and by the court shows that this is an appeal from the denial of the motion to suppress and nothing more. There is no way under the rules to make such a denial a final order without pleading not guilty and going through a trial. Unless the majority has decided to leave applications of the rules of this Court to counsel and the lower court such appeal is improper.
This case should be remanded and the defendant given the opportunity to enter a proper plea. Until that is done and the correct procedures are followed to bring the case on appeal, this Court has no business reviewing the factual findings. However, the majority has chosen to render an advisory opinion. Since I strongly disagree with the conclusion, I am forced also to write an advisory opinion.
SEIZURE OF DEFENDANT
I disagree with the majority that defendant’s fourth amendment rights were violated and that the evidence found in the search of his suitcase should be suppressed.
Defendant first argues that his detention, and that of his suitcase for investigative purposes, constituted an unlawful seizure because the officers lacked reasonable suspicion that he was involved in criminal activity. Second, defendant asserts that no probable cause existed upon which to base his arrest.
In State v. Deitman, 739 P.2d 616, 617 (Utah 1987), the Court cited United States v. Merritt, 736 F.2d 223 (5th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1142, 106 S.Ct. 2250, 90 L.Ed.2d 696 (1986), for the “three levels of police encounters with the public which the United States Supreme Court has held are constitutionally permissible[.]” The Fifth Circuit Court wrote:
(1) an officer may approach a citizen at anytime [sic] and pose questions so long as the citizen is not detained against his will;
*951(2) an officer may seize a person if the officer has an “articulable suspicion” that the person has committed or is about to commit a crime; however, the “detention must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop”;
(3) an officer may arrest a suspect if the officer has probable cause to believe an offense has been committed or is being committed. See Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 498-99, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1324-25, 75 L.Ed.2d 229, 236-37 (1983).
Merritt, 736 F.2d at 230.
Concerning the first of the three levels of police encounters, in State v. Trujillo, 739 P.2d 85, 87-88 (Utah App.1987), this Court wrote:
[A] seizure within the meaning of the fourth amendment does not occur when a police officer merely approaches an individual on the street and questions him, if the person is willing to listen. However, the person approached is not required to answer the officer’s questions, and his refusal to listen to the officer’s questions or answer them, without more, does not furnish reasonable grounds for further detention (footnote and citations omitted).
In their brief, the state conceded the police lacked reasonable suspicion when they initially approached defendant. However, what little information provided by defendant was given freely and he was not detained against his will. This clearly was a level one encounter.
From the time of the initial encounter, shortly after 11:05 a.m., defendant wandered the terminal area without restraint until the drug detection dog was in place at several minutes past noon. At that point defendant was detained and his suitcase taken to be included in the lineup presented to the dog. This was a level two encounter requiring the officer to have reasonable suspicion.
The touchstone case applicable to this situation is Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). The proposition for which Terry is known has been codified as Utah Code Ann. § 77-7-15 (1982) which states:
A peace officer may stop any person in a public place when he has a reasonable suspicion to believe he has committed or is in the act of committing or is attempting to commit a public offense and may demand his name, address and an explanation of actions.
Again, as noted by the majority, Terry admonishes the judiéiary to decide each case on its own facts and that a police officer may detain an individual for the purposes of a Terry stop where he “observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot....” Id. at 30, 88 S.Ct. at 1884. See also United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 885, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 2582, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975) (In all situations the officer is entitled to assess the facts in light of his experience in detecting illegal entry and smuggling.); State v. Mendoza, 748 P.2d 181, 183 (Utah 1987). The trial court “must consider the totality of the circumstances facing the officers” and the “reviewing court should not overturn the trial court’s determination unless it is clearly erroneous.” Id. (citation omitted). The detaining officer’s experience in similar cases is an important factor a trial court must weigh in determining if the officer had valid reasonable suspicion. The factors making up such suspicion must be considered in total context rather than in a vacuum. I believe Sergeant Pearson did have reasonable suspicion which he clearly articulated at the suppression hearing. Defendant initially appeared nervous. He appeared nervous to both Sergeant Pearson and Agent Whittaker. The nervousness was exhibited when deplaning, on the concourse, and upon entering the coffee shop. Nervousness alone does not prove reasonable suspicion because such behavior may be consistent with innocent as well as criminal conduct. Trujillo, 739 P.2d at 89. But it is a factor to be considered. Defendant also waited in the deplaning area while the other passengers walked past him. Again, a factor to alert a trained officer to the need to investigate further, a duty of *952the police. State v. Houser, 669 P.2d 437, 439 (Utah 1983). Defendant’s behavior at the telephone and his not inserting a coin in the machine is another factor. The initial approach and contact was made after defendant made his unusual exit from the telephone area, another factor.
During the initial stop, the officers discovered defendant’s ticket was written in a name denied by defendant to be his and he carried no identification, two more factors to be considered. Subsequent to this valid stop, Sergeant Pearson learned that the flight had originated in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and that the telephone number given upon reserving the ticket was no longer working and had been changed to a non-published number, additional factors. Agent Whittaker also knew defendant had utilized another telephone further down the concourse to make calls. The totality of this behavior was sufficient to generate a request for the drug detection dog. Between the time of the request and the arrival of the dog, defendant's “constant popping in and out of the terminal and walking around” added further fuel to Sergeant Pearson’s suspicions. Defendant was not detained until such time as Sergeant Pearson had abundant, articulable and reasonable suspicion.2
DETENTION OF DEFENDANT
I now address whether defendant’s detention was proper. The primary concern is whether the length of the detention transformed it from a Terry stop into a de facto arrest. United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 105 S.Ct. 1568, 1574, 84 L.Ed.2d 605 (1985). The United States Supreme Court has stated:
[A]n investigative detention must be temporary and last no longer than is necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop. Similarly, the investigative methods employed should be the least intrusive means reasonably available to verify or dispel the officer’s suspicion in a short period of time. It is the State’s burden to demonstrate that the seizure it seeks to justify on the basis of a reasonable suspicion was sufficiently limited in scope and duration to satisfy the conditions of an investigative seizure.
Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 500, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1325, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (citations omitted). Guidance is provided in determining what would be “sufficiently limited in scope and duration” by the Court in United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983). There, Place’s behavior aroused the suspicion of law enforcement officers who were observing activity at an airport. Ultimately, Place’s luggage was presented to a drug detection dog which reacted positively to one bag which was found to contain cocaine. The Second Circuit Court reversed Place’s conviction and the United States Supreme Court affirmed. Although the Court wrote approvingly of the use of a dog in the examination of luggage suspected of containing drugs, Id. at 707, 103 S.Ct. at 2644, it held:
Although the 90-minute detention of [Place’s] luggage is sufficient to render the seizure unreasonable, the violation was exacerbated by the failure of the agents to accurately inform [Place] of the place to which they were transporting his luggage, of the length of time he might be dispossessed, and of what arrangements would be made for return of *953the luggage if the investigation dispelled the suspicion.
Id. at 710, 103 S.Ct. at 2646.
The United States Supreme Court held a defendant’s detention to be unlawful when the defendant was confined in a “large storage closet” with a detective for approximately 15 minutes while another detective retrieved defendant’s luggage, brought it to the place of confinement, and opened the two suitcases. Royer, 460 U.S. at 507-08, 103 S.Ct. at 1329. Conversely, the Court upheld a 20-minute detention during which the police proceeded expeditiously in confirming their suspicion that defendant was involved in criminal activity. Sharpe, 470 U.S. at 687-88, 105 S.Ct. at 1576. The Court stated that its cases “impose no rigid time limitation on Terry stops,” emphasized the need “to consider the law enforcement purposes to be served by the stop as well as the time reasonably needed to effectuate those purposes,” and that there was no “bright line” rule. Common sense and ordinary human experience must take precedence over some rigid criteria. Id. at 685, 105 S.Ct. at 1575.
The hearing transcript indicates defendant was told his suitcase was being taken into the airport security area (the Delta Airlines baggage makeup area), into which those without the appropriate security clearance were not allowed, that the suitcase would be included in the lineup, and the next step depended on what happened at the lineup. In any event, it would be further explained to defendant. Sergeant Pearson testified that, if the dog had not alerted on the suitcase, it would have been returned to defendant and he “would have been allowed to leave.” During the period the suitcase was taken, defendant was no£ confined in any manner. Agent Whittaker testified that, when he departed the lineup area after being told of the positive alert, defendant “was seated at one of chairs out in the concourse area.” Defendant claims 20 minutes elapsed between the time he was detained and when he was placed under arrest. During this period, Sergeant Pearson rendered his explanation concerning the suitcase to defendant, the bag was taken into the lineup area, the lineup was arranged, the drug detection dog was introduced to the lineup, and Agent Whittaker walked back out of the lineup area to where defendant was seated. I believe the investigative methods employed by the police during the detention were minimally intrusive and that the duration was limited to that necessary to effectuate the purpose of the detention.
In his initial brief, defendant claims the officers did not have probable cause to arrest him. His argument centers on a lack of reasonable suspicion and that the detention exceeded the scope of a Terry stop. I have already discussed these issues but to lay the matter to rest, I need only restate the testimony of Agent Whittaker concerning the dog’s reaction when confronted by defendant’s suitcase. He stated, “I observed the dog jump on Mr. Sery’s bag, attempt to bite it, was scratching it and was very excited.” I submit that was probable cause of a very convincing nature.
The majority opinion fails to provide the law enforcement community of Utah with any guidance as to what the officers should have done to have been correct. The obvious message to law enforcement is to leave people alone unless probable cause is present. I strongly disagree. This case should stand as a model of proper police procedure and a demonstration of the step by step development of reasonable suspicion.
The lower court was correct in denying the motion to suppress. It was in error in allowing the entry of an invalid plea. I believe the majority in this case is wrong on both issues.

. Utah Code Ann. § 77-13-1 (1988) lists five kinds of pleas: not guilty; guilty; no contest; not guilty by reason of insanity; and guilty and mentally ill.

. In footnote 10, the majority acknowledged that Sergeant Pearson “disclaimed any use of a drug courier profile" in his stops of defendant. However, the majority then discusses at great length a law review article primarily concerned with the profile. Several discrete behavioral factors relative to drug couriers are analyzed and, where possible, a percentage is stated. The percentage relates to those drug courier defendants who exhibited the particular factor. The results are not damning when an individual factor is examined. However, when a defendant exhibits a multiplicity of these factors, the significance of the percentages fades. The bias in the footnote should also be noted. In most, a small percentage is stated to show just how small the percentage of suspects exhibited the characteristic. In the use of an alias the use of the percentage is reversed. In truth, 78.6% of suspects were using aliases as was Sery. While the majority claims the officers did not know Sery was using an alias, Sery himself told them the ticket was not in his name and that he carried no identification.