Court Opinion

ID: 9593866
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:25:29.893764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:03:05.844402
License: Public Domain

Williams, J.*
(dissenting)—The majority holds that the illegal detention of Mennegar taints the arrest made pursuant to an outstanding warrant discovered during the detention, thereby tainting the evidence seized incident to that arrest. This holding is contrary to the rules announced by the Washington Supreme Court, and accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
In State v. Rothenberger, 73 Wn.2d 596, 599, 440 P.2d 184 (1968), the court announced the following rule:
It is our view that Officer Edwards, having discovered from an independent source that Rothenberger was wanted on a felony charge, not only had the right but the duty to pursue Rothenberger and arrest him, if that was practicable, or to get that information to officers who could intercept him.
To illustrate just how ridiculous the appellants' contention is, let us assume that while detaining the appellants on an unlawful arrest, word had come over the radio that Rothenberger and Pernar were wanted for a burglary in Seattle. On appellants' theory, the officer supposedly had no alternative but to touch his hat and say, "Gentlemen, be on your way. I am sorry to have unlawfully detained you." We find neither reason nor judicial precedent for such a change in the rules of the long continued game of "Cops and Robbers."
(Italics mine.)
The majority relies upon State v. Ellwood, 52 Wn. App. 70, 74, 757 P.2d 547 (1988), for its decision that an illegal detention taints a subsequent arrest and incident seizure and that "coerced continued presence" of the detainee prevents any attenuation of the taint. The Ellwood opinion *264cites Rothenberger but that case did not resolve the question of whether an arrest pursuant to an outstanding warrant is tainted by an illegal detention:
The "poison," if any, which had inhered in the original unlawful arrest was so greatly attenuated by the time and circumstances intervening, when the appellants went to trial for the Seattle burglary, that it had lost its potency, if it ever had any.
(Italics mine.) State v. Rothenberger, supra at 601.
I would hold that no "poison" is injected by an illegal detention into an arrest pursuant to an outstanding warrant the existence of which is learned by the officer during that detention. Accordingly, there would be no taint of the evidence seized incident to such an arrest. The "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, as announced in Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 485, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441, 83 S. Ct. 407 (1963), prevents the use of verbal or tangible evidence obtained as a result of an unlawful invasion of the home or the person. An extension of this doctrine to prevent the service of a valid outstanding warrant upon a person while illegally detained is unjustified. I respectfully dissent.
Review granted at 112 Wn.2d 1022 (1989).

Judge Ward Williams is serving as a judge pro tempore of the Court of Appeals pursuant to CAR 21(c).