Court Opinion

ID: 9739346
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:12:43.753008+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:11.774027
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
dissenting.
This case presents a problem because the only finding the trial court explicitly made was “the officer did not have articulable facts leading to a reasonable suspicion that a stat*861ute was being violated.” The majority states that findings on the existence of reasonable and articulable suspicion involve questions of law, and are subject to full review by this court. It has therefore put the trial court’s finding on reasonable suspicion under a microscope. Yet, the factfinder cannot make a decision on the existence of reasonable suspicion in a vacuum; it must evaluate the facts of the case before making its legal conclusion. See Salter v. N.D. Dept. of Transp., 505 N.W.2d 111 (N.D.1993); United States v. Campbell, 843 F.2d 1089 (8th Cir.1988).
Clearly, the trial court evaluated the facts here; it is not clear, however, what the trial court found the facts to be. Under Rule 12(e), NDRCrimP, “[i]f factual issues are involved in determining a motion, the court shall state its essential findings on the record.” We have not previously addressed the issue of what steps should be taken if a trial court fails to make factual findings as required under Rule 12(e). Our Rule 12(e) is almost identical to Rule 12(e), FRCrimP. Two federal circuits, interpreting Federal Rule 12(e) strictly, order remands when trial courts fail to make factual findings when determining pretrial motions. United States v. Moore, 936 F.2d 287 (6th Cir.1991); United States v. Prieto-Villa, 910 F.2d 601 (9th Cir.1990). I believe the better view, and one consistent with our approach in civil cases, see, e.g., Lentz v. Lentz, 353 N.W.2d 742 (N.D.1984), is the view that a remand is not always necessary when trial courts fail to make factual findings as required by Rule 12(e), FRCrimP. United States v. Bloomfield, 40 F.3d 910 (8th Cir.1994); United States v. Griffin, 7 F.3d 1512 (10th Cir.1993); United States v. Harley, 990 F.2d 1340 (D.C.Cir.1993); United States v. Yeagin, 927 F.2d 798 (5th Cir.1991). These courts will decline a remand if “any reasonable view of the evidence” supports the trial court’s decision on a motion to suppress. Bloomfield, 40 F.3d at 913-14. In United States v. Williams, 951 F.2d 1287 (D.C.Cir.1991), the court explained that refusal to remand is justified when “any reasonable view of the evidence” supports the trial court’s decision because the trial court, “in reaching its legal conclusion, presumably made whatever factual findings were needed to support the conclusion.” Id. at 1291. When remand is denied, the reviewing court therefore “review[s] facts we infer were actually, albeit silently, found.” Id.
The trial court’s legal conclusion here was that the trooper did not have articulable and reasonable suspicion to stop the defendant. On review of the record before us, a reasonable view of the evidence supports this finding. There are indications, which the trial court noted, that the trooper acted because he “had a suspicion and a hunch that something was going wrong.” It is well established that “reasonable and articulable suspicion” must be founded on objective facts. Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Mere subjective feelings, ie., hunches, do not provide a rational basis for reasonable suspicion. See Nicacio v. I.N.S., 797 F.2d 700 (9th Cir.1985). In addition, there were inconsistencies between the trooper’s testimony before the trial court and his prior testimony before an administrative tribunal where the trooper admitted that he had a hunch, based on the time and location, that the people in the truck might be drinking. Finally, the events upon which the trooper said he based his decision to stop occurred within only a few seconds. Considering the result reached by the trial court, it is reasonable to infer from the record that the trial court implicitly found that the trooper acted on a bare hunch that the people in the truck were drinking and that it also found the trooper’s testimony that he stopped the truck for other reasons not to be credible. Under the “any reasonable view of the evidence” rule, it would be appropriate to affirm the trial court’s order.
The majority does not deal with the trial court’s failure to make explicit factual findings. Instead, the majority concludes that the trial court found the trooper’s testimony to be credible. Based on this conclusion, the majority treats the trooper’s testimony as if it were a factual finding of the court. This is problematic because the record suggests that the trial court found the trooper’s testimony to be incredible. The trial court, in general, *862questioned the trooper’s testimony, characterizing it as being full of holes.
Questions involving witness credibility are in the realm of the trial court, and we defer to the trial court on such questions. E.g., State v. Konewko, 529 N.W.2d 861 (N.D.1995); see also State v. Nelson, 488 N.W.2d 600 (N.D.1992) (Levine, J., dissenting). A finding of incredibility need not be articulated, but can often be inferred from the trial court’s decision. Becker v. Becker, 262 N.W.2d 478 (N.D.1978). In cases like this one, where we can gather from the result that the trial court discounted a witness’s testimony, we should not rely on the same discredited testimony in making our decision.
Moreover, the majority does not merely disregard the trial court’s implicit finding on the trooper’s credibility, it criticizes the trial court for questioning the trooper’s credibility. The majority states that the trial court “did not give the officer the benefit of the inferences” which he was “entitled” to draw. Yet, the trial court clearly was not persuaded that the trooper’s actions were based on reasonable inferences; it indicated that the trooper acted on a bare hunch.
The majority states that the trial court erred because it “did not apply the appropriate legal standard.” The majority’s analysis, however, does not focus on the legal standard at issue but instead on why the trial court should have interpreted the facts differently. The trial court looked at the facts and decided the officer did not have reasonable suspicion to stop the ear. The majority looks at the same facts and decides the opposite. There is an obvious disagreement, but it is a disagreement based on different interpretations of the evidence, not on a right and wrong view of the law. It is the trial court’s prerogative to find the facts, and it implicitly found that the facts did not support a finding of reasonable and articulable suspicion to stop the defendant’s ear.
Because a reasonable view of the evidence supports the trial court’s decision, I would affirm the trial court’s order.