Court Opinion

ID: 9544361
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:55:06.061739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:12:51.320823
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF
LEVINSON, J., WITH WHOM MARUMOTO, J., JOINS
I dissent. The constitutional standard for probable cause, as delineated by .the majority, has not been met on the facts of this case, and the motion tp suppress therefore should have been granted.
The majority opinion reflects numerous errors of both fact and law.
*558First, the facts: Officer Leu opened the stall door in response to what the majority characterizes as “loud talking about money and prices.” The conversation did not even arouse the curiosity of Edward Ildefonso, the security guard for the nearby Beachcomber Hotel, who happened to be accompanying Officer Leu. Moreover, the majority emphasizes the particular need for fast action when there is probable cause to suspect possession of narcotics, but conveniently omits the fact that Officer Leu had never before made a drug arrest, in addition to the fact that he failed to testify to any suspicion of narcotics whatsoever at the time he opened the door.
The majority’s errors of law are equally serious.
The issue of a toilet stall occupant’s reasonable expectation of privacy is mentioned only parenthetically, in spite of its undeniable importance. The constitutional considerations which give rise to this protection derive from the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution1 and article I, section 5 of the Hawaii Constitution.2
A key case in this area is Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967), in which the Supreme Court held that the government’s eavesdropping on the defendant while he was in a telephone booth violated the privacy upon which he justifiably relied and thus constituted a search and seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Court rejected its prior physical trespass doctrine and said in now-famous words that the Fourth *559Amendment protects people and not simply areas. 389 U.S. at 353.
Wherever a man may be, he is entitled to know that he will remain free from unreasonable searches and seizures. [389 U.S. at 359]
This court has had occasion to consider the problem of freedom from unwarranted governmental intrusion in past cases and, needless to say, we have followed the Katz rationale. In State v. Matias, 51 Haw. 62, 451 P.2d 257 (1969), we held that an overnight guest of a tenant was granted a right to privacy on the premises of his host’s apartment notwithstanding his host’s consent to a search by police, stating that “a person has a ‘halo’ of privacy wherever he goes and can invoke a protectable right to privacy wherever he may legitimately be and reasonably expect freedom from governmental intrusion.” 51 Haw. at 65-66, 451 P.2d at 259. Likewise, in State v. Dias, 52 Haw. 100, 470 P.2d 510 (1970), we held that a passageway located on private property between two apartment houses was a place of such character as to give reasonable rise to expectations of privacy. 52 Haw. at 106-07, 470 P.2d at 514.
I think that the fact that voices or other sounds emanating from a toilet stall can be heard outside does not automatically deprive occupants of the right not to be seen any more than carrying on a conversation inside a glass enclosed telephone booth where occupants can be seen outside automatically deprives occupants of the right not to be heard by electronic devices. Nor does the fact that an occupant of a free toilet stall is willing to share it with one other person deprive him of the right to exclude all other persons.
An examination of cases from other jurisdictions involving toilet stalls yields an identical conclusion, even prior to Katz. Bielicki v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County, 57 Cal. App. 2d 602, 21 Cal. Rptr. 552, 371 P.2d 288 (1962).
*560The post-Katz cases, needless to say, are not at variance; they simply possess the added force of Katz of which to avail themselves. Most pertinent is Brown v. State, 3 Md. App. 90, 94, 238 A.2d 147, 149 (1968) in which the police officer saw narcotic paraphernalia and the defendant’s actions by peering over the door into the stall. Reversing the conviction, the court stated:
We believe that a person who enters an enclosed stall in a public toilet, with the door closed behind him, is entitled, at least, to the modicum of privacy its design affords, certainly to the extent that he will not be joined by an uninvited guest or spied upon by probing eyes in a head physically intruding into the area.
In addition to underestimating the importance of the appellant’s reasonable expectation of privacy, the majority has misapplied its own probable cause standard to the facts. Judged by any objective standard, the conversation overheard by Leu, even though taking place in a closed toilet stall, did not amount to probable cause for believing that any illegal activity was going on in the toilet stall.
While I do not disagree with the definition of probable cause in terms of an objective test, the majority completely discounts the arresting officer’s own testimony, despite its statement to the contrary. Officer Leu testified as follows on cross-examination, in addition to his statement on direct examination quoted by the majority:
Q So it was primarily your curiosity,- not that you believed there was any — anything illegal, any crime being conducted or committed within- the commode area, isn’t that right?
A That is correct, sir.
The officer, by his own admission, clearly did not think that anything illegal was happening in the stall at the *561time he decided to investigate further and, even if his statements are not totally dispositive of the matter, there can be no better evidence of probable cause than the recollection of the arresting officer as to what he saw and thought. Yet the majority, under the guise of an objective standard, would have us believe that this officer possessed probable cause when in fact he testified that he did not.
Moreover, under the objective test, what illegal conduct was suggested by the mere presence of two occupants in the same toilet stall talking about money and prices? The majority cites United States v. Smith, 293 A.2d 856 (D.C. Ct. App. 1972) in support of the proposition that observation of the legs of two men under the door of a toilet stall constitutes probable cause. That case is readily distinguishable, however, because, as the court stated and the majority here omits, the men gave the appearance of cheating the coin mechanism. The case at hand does not involve a pay toilet, of course. The arresting officer did not have probable cause to believe, before he opened the door, that the two occupants did not have a legitimate reason for their presence together in the stall, such as discussing business where they could not be seen; whatever the reason, we cannot presume illegality in view of the officer’s failure to refer to any crime about which he became suspicious prior to investigating further.
The facts in Uva v. State, 124 Ga. App. 486, 184 S.E.2d 200 (1971), are much more analogous. There the court held that a police officer did not have probable cause to arrest the defendant when, during a check of an area where previous narcotics arrests had been made, the officer overheard the defendant, whom he had never seen before, say something to another person who responded “No, man, I don’t want to buy anything.” The facts of the case before us reveal that Officer Leu heard an even less suspicious conversation.
The majority seems to be attempting to distinguish *562between a search and an investigation, saying, in substance, that the same conduct by a police officer which is forbidden in making a search is proper if done in investigating. For constitutional purposes, there can be no difference between the two. Likewise it is meaningless to say that the pills were in plain view after the door was opened or that they were seized incident to a lawful arrest, when there was no right to open the toilet stall door in the first place, just as there was no right to attach a listening device to the telephone booth in Katz.
The search in the present case was a quintessential “manifestly exploratory” one prompted by general curiosity, People v. Superior Court of Yolo County, 3 Cal. 3d 807, 831, 91 Cal. Rptr. 729, 745, 478 P.2d 449, 465 (1970), and as such it is intolerable under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 5 of the Hawaii Constitution.
I would therefore reverse.

 The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 ArticIe I, section 5 of the Hawaii Constitution reads:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches, seizures, and invasions of privacy shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized or the communications sought to be intercepted.