Court Opinion

ID: 9731752
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:57:18.543295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:20.953323
License: Public Domain

DONIELSON, Judge
(specially concurring).
While I concur in the result the majority reaches, I also wish to express my view on a question not addressed in the majority opinion. The majority states that if the police officer had wished to arrest plaintiff, arguably he could have done so after the initial observation through the apartment window. I agree since the officer’s reasonable cause to believe the objects he observed inside plaintiff’s apartment were stolen from the cafe provided probable cause to arrest plaintiff. Once, however, the police chose to delay such an arrest due to their attempts to obtain either plaintiff’s permission or a search warrant, the exigent circumstances required to make a warrantless arrest were destroyed.
The majority did not address the issue of whether exigent circumstances existed to justify a warrantless arrest. Under the guidelines for finding exigency set out in State v. Jones, 274 N.W.2d 273, 275-76 (Iowa 1979) (citing Dorman v. United States, 435 F.2d 385, 392-93 (D.C. Cir. 1970)), I believe exigent circumstances existed at the time of the initial police observation through plaintiff’s apartment window. The police had probable cause to believe plaintiff committed the breaking and entering into the cafe. The police also had strong reason to believe he was in the apartment. Although the majority finds the evidence involved here was not of the type easily destroyed, I would find differently.
The observed evidence included glass liquor bottles bearing Iowa State liquor tax stamps and approximately two dozen packages of cigarettes. These items of evidence, while not as readily destructible as narcotics, were susceptible to destruction if the plaintiff had had sufficient time. The cigarettes could have been flushed down the toilet; and, the liquor tax stamps could have been scratched off or destroyed beyond recognition.
Under these facts, exigent circumstances existed that would have permitted a war-rantless arrest immediately after the initial observation by the police, and a subsequent search incident to that arrest. Id.; see State v. Johnson, 232 N.W.2d 477, 479-80 (Iowa 1975). The exigent circumstances were, however, destroyed by the police officer’s delay and subsequent actions.