Court Opinion

ID: 9657906
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:40:55.209653+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:50.831761
License: Public Domain

LARSON, Justice
(dissenting).
Being unable to understand the majority opinion filed herein, I respectfully dissent. To me the issue is not complicated and does not seriously involve the interpretation and application of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution or any Iowa constitutional provisions.
The issue here is simply whether, in the performance of his duties to oversee and supervise a parolee the parole agent observes stolen or contraband property on the premises occupied by the parolee, he or an assisting officer can seize such goods and testify in regard to them in a criminal prosecution other than for a parole violation. I hold he may do so, and should do so, if the parole system is to be any protection for the community or general public.
Our first inquiry, then, is whether under the law and the facts the parole agent or supervisor was properly on the parolee’s premises. The second is whether evidence of a separate criminal offense observed by him while there could be used in a trial of that offense. I believe under this record the agent was there both by consent and under power and authority to examine the premises for any and all parole violations by the defendant Teeters, and that while legally there he observed such evidence and may so testify.
Parolee Teeters had executed the usual instrument to secure his parole. In it inter alia he agreed to conduct himself honestly in all respects, to obey the law, to keep reasonable hours, to refrain from excessive use of intoxicant liquor or beer, and not to go beyond the limits of Montgomery County, Iowa. It appears with the aid of Mr. Holmes, his parole supervisor, Teeters secured employment and living quarters in Red Oak, Iowa.
At approximately 7:30 A. M. on July 26, 1968, Holmes received a telephone call from Teeters’ employer stating that Teeters had not reported for work that morning. Since an unexplained absence from work would be a violation of Teeters’ parole, Holmes went to his apartment and knocked on the door. He could hear someone inside, but for ten minutes he received no response to his calling and knocking. Finally Teeters opened the door and let him in. The apartment was in shambles with beer cans scattered on the floor. In explaining why he had not reported for work, Teeters told Holmes he had been out late the night before and, in fact, had gone to Pottawat-tamie County, that there had been “quite a party” when he returned to his apartment, and that he had overslept. Holmes decided it was his duty to check out the entire premises to determine the extent of Teeters’ parole violations. He found the door to the bedroom locked and, when Teeters asked him not to open that door “because there was something [he] should not see,” Holmes rightfully proceeded to obtain the whole story and learn the extent and seriousness of Teeters’ parole violation. It appears Holmes was aware of recent break-ins in Page and Montgomery Counties, and Teeters’ extreme nervousness aroused his suspicions as to what a thorough examination of the premises might reveal.
Not being able to open the door to the bedroom, Holmes complied with Teeters’ request to get something to quiet his nerves at a local store. He also advised Teeters he would be right back and that if there was something he should not see in that room, now was the time to remove it before he got into more serious trouble.
Holmes then went to the police station, obtained a set of master keys, returned to *542the apartment, and attempted to unlock the door. When Teeters obtained a knife from the kitchen and “kind of juggled” it in his hands, Holmes decided he needed help and went to the police station. He asked the chief of police to accompany him to Teeters’ apartment “and keep an eye on Mr. Teeters while [he] opened this door.” When they returned and started trying various keys, Teeters said he would help them open it, that “he would be glad when the door [was] open and it would be over with.” When he indicated which key would fit the lock, Holmes did open the door to the bedroom. He then found the door to the closet locked and opened it with the same key used in the bedroom door. Therein Holmes saw a new color television set with the store tags still on it, two stereo sets, an iron, and a clock radio, later identified as having been taken from a store in Page County. Recognizing this as stolen property, the chief of police duly informed Teeters of his rights and he was taken into custody.
Viewing this record in a light most favorable to defendant, I cannot see how Holmes’ acts in performing his duty under the circumstances can be considered an unreasonable infringement on Teeters’ rights. Teeters knew of Holmes’ duties and was aware of the agreement he signed at the time he accepted the parole. In fact, except to mildly protest, he consented to Holmes’ presence in the apartment and helped him conduct his investigation. Never once did he try to stop that investigation or demand that the officers obtain a search warrant. In any event, it cannot be seriously contended that Holmes was not legally upon these premises at the time he observed the stolen goods. Even if consent is doubted, I believe, as Teeters apparently did, that Holmes was legally on the premises performing his duty as a parole officer, and that alone is sufficient basis for his presence at that time.
It has often been held that a granted and accepted parole does not change the status of a prisoner. By the parole the prisoner is not discharged, but is only permitted during good behavior to serve the remainder of his sentence outside the prison walls. A parole simply pushes back the prison walls for the prisoner, allowing him wider mobility and personal opportunity while serving his sentence. State v. Rath, 258 Iowa 568, 573, 139 N.W.2d 468, 471; State v. Byrnes, 260 Iowa 765, 771, 150 N.W.2d 280, 284.
Section 247.9, Code 1966, provides: “All paroled prisoners shall remain, while on parole, in the legal custody of the warden or superintendent and under the control of said board [parole board], and shall be subject, at any time, to be taken into custody and returned to the institution from which they were paroled.”
We have recently held such statutory provisions are constitutional and proper. As bearing thereon, see Cole v. Holliday, Iowa, 171 N.W.2d 603, and citations.
In addition to our statutes and decisions pertaining to the rights of one on parole, there are numerous federal decisions which support the view that due to his status a parolee’s premises may be searched by a parole agent without a search warrant, especially when he is present, and reasonable cause appears to sustain a belief that the parolee has committed a crime, that the protection afforded by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is only against unreasonable searches, and that what is reasonable in the case of a parolee is not the same as what is reasonable in the case of one possessed of full civil right. United States ex rel. Randazzo v. Follette, D.C., 282 F.Supp. 10; People v. Triche, 148 Cal.App.2d 198, 306 P.2d 616. In Follette, defendant’s parole officer and one or more police detectives searched defendant’s apartment while arresting him for parole violation. The search revealed some heroin, which was subsequently introduced into evidence in a state criminal matter stemming from that discovery. The court there upheld the search and seizure, saying at page 13 of 282 F.Supp.: “The Fourth Amendment protection against ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’ by its *543terms extends to one released on parole but in determining whether a search is ‘unreasonable’ the parole status is a powerful circumstance to be considered. * * * Any search by a parole officer in good faith to determine whether a paroled prisoner is complying with the conditions of his release would in my opinion be reasonable. Such a search could become ‘unreasonable’ only if made too often or if made at an unreasonable hour or if unreasonably prolonged or for other reasons establishing arbitrary or oppressive conduct by the parole officer.” This accords with my view, and under the circumstances here disclosed it cannot be said Holmes’ search of Teeters’ premises was without just cause or was unreasonable for any other reason.
In People v. Triche, supra, a parole officer had gone to parolee’s premises in the course of a surveillance. His warrantless investigation revealed narcotics. The court held, because of the officers’ special supervisory and visitatorial powers and duties, the search was reasonable. It said at page 618 of 306 P.2d: “The question whether the search by the parole officer was illegal is largely governed by the special character of the relation between such officer and his parolee, * * *. For the protection of the community as to whose security the parolee constitutes a calculated risk, the parole officer exercises an ubiquitous supervision over him, including broad visitatorial powers. Having constructive custody of his prisoner at all times, there is nothing unreasonable in a parole officer’s search of the prisoner’s premises where he has reasonable cause to believe that the parole has been breached. * * * ”
Certainly no parole officer having observed minor breaches of parole would be performing his duty to the board, the prisoner, and the public, unless he sought out and determined the full extent of the violation being investigated.
The majority, without benefit of factual revelation, extends considerable discussion of cases which concern themselves with what is called “dilution” or “stripping” of a parolee’s constitutional rights. They are not in point here, and although I am not in favor of denying a parolee his constitutional rights not affected by his status, I do not feel we are justified in ignoring that status in applying such rights. By doing so, the majority neglects the special relationship of a parolee and the parole officer who must supervise the activities of the prisoner on parole and vouch for his conduct, necessary for community security.
Although attorney generals’ opinions are not precedent in this court, I would, because of its reasoning, give serious consideration to an opinion rendered on February 19,1964, which states in part as follows: “Thus for the purpose of supervision and determining a parolee’s rehabilitative progress the parole agent has a legal right, without a search warrant, to demand that the parolee * * * open his room for a search by the parole agent. * * * However, a search of the parolee’s room during his absence should only be commenced when the parole agent has reasonable cause to believe that the parolee has breached his parole.”
As to the second proposition, it must be conceded under our recent pronouncements that when an officer is lawfully upon a premises and observes illegalities or contraband, he may testify as to that fact in a criminal proceeding related thereto. State v. Moore, Iowa, 156 N.W.2d 890, 893; State v. Peterson, Iowa, 155 N.W.2d 412, 415; State v. Brant, 260 Iowa 758, 763, 150 N.W.2d 621, 625.
To hold here that the parole officer and his aiding officers, who were rightfully on Teeters’ premises, could not testify as to what they saw in a criminal prosecution related thereto would be to place blinders upon parole agents, to give parole violators preference to other persons, and to reduce our parole system to a mere rehabilitation program.
I would, therefore, conclude that a parolee has a special status not identical with *544other persons, that a parole agent or supervisor has not only the right but the duty to conduct a search of the parolee’s premises when he has reason to believe the parolee has been engaged in activities violative of his parole, and that he is not restricted in testifying in another criminal action as to what he observed in his official investigation of the premises. I find no unreasonable search in this case and would hold the trial court erred in sustaining defendant’s motion to suppress that evidence. The writ should be sustained.
SNELL, J., joins in this dissent.