State v. Whitney

54 A.3d 1284

2012 ME 105

STATE of Maine

v.Daniel WHITNEY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Submitted On Briefs: June 27, 2012.

Decided: Aug. 7, 2012.

Jeffrey C. Toothaker, Esq., Toothaker & Chong, Ellsworth, for appellant Daniel Whitney.

Carletta M. Bassano, District Attorney, and Mary N. Kellett, Asst. Dist. Atty., Prosecutorial District No. VII, Ellsworth, for appellee State of Maine.

Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, and GORMAN, JJ.

Majority: LEVY, SILVER, MEAD, and GORMAN, JJ.

Dissent: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, J.

MEAD, J.

[¶ 1] Daniel Whitney appeals from a judgment of conviction of one count of operating under the influence (Class D), 29–A M.R.S. § 2411(1–A)(B)(1) (2011), entered in the District Court (Ellsworth, Mallonee, J.) following his conditional guilty plea. Whitney argues that the court ( A. Murray, J.) erred in issuing an order denying his motion to suppress evidence derived from a police officer's stop of his vehicle. Because we conclude that the stop was unconstitutional, we vacate the judgment and the order denying the motion to suppress.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶ 2] The following facts are not disputed. On November 13, 2010, around 1:40 a.m., Officer Shawn Willey of the Ellsworth Police Department responded to the scene of a single-vehicle accident on Christian Ridge Road in Ellsworth. The vehicle had gone off the road and struck a utility pole; it was on its roof and its windows were broken. The individual who reported the accident had also informed the dispatcher that a male was walking on Christian Ridge Road away from the accident scene towards Red Bridge Road. By the time Officer Willey arrived, the vehicle's operator was gone and he did not observe anyone walking on Christian Ridge Road. He also did not observe any blood at the scene.

[¶ 3] Officer Willey was unable to determine who owned the vehicle based on its registration information because the person who had registered it was no longer the vehicle's owner. Officer Willey attempted to track the operator from the accident scene with his police dog. The dog led him to an area near Red Bridge Road, but then lost the scent. Officer Willey explained that after the unsuccessful track, he and another officer “began doing a roving patrol in the area, trying to locate somebody in case they were still on foot.” He stated that the purpose of the “roving patrol” was to “make sure that, A, they didn't need any medical attention, they weren't injured, and, B, they were involved in the criminal act of leaving the scene of an accident.” ¹

[¶ 4] Around 3 a.m., Officer Willey spoke with the occupants of a vehicle at the intersection of Christian Ridge Road and Red Bridge Road who informed him that they had seen several men walking on Red Bridge Road. Officer Willey proceeded along Red Bridge Road for three or four miles and located three men on the side of the road who were speaking to the driver and passenger of a vehicle that had pulled up alongside them and stopped. Officer Willey pulled up behind the stopped car but did not activate his blue lights or siren. He testified that he did not observe anything illegal about the vehicle, nor had it committed any traffic violations.

[¶ 5] As Officer Willey began speaking with the pedestrians, he observed that the vehicle was about to drive away and instructed the driver, Daniel Whitney, to “wait here”; he acknowledged that at that point, Whitney was not free to leave. Officer Willey explained that he instructed Whitney not to leave because he “just wanted to verify that he wasn't involved in the crash, or he had a passenger with him and make sure that he hadn't picked somebody up along the way from the crash.” Whitney waited for three or four minutes while Officer Willey conversed with the pedestrians. After Officer Willey determined that the pedestrians had recently left a party and were not involved in the accident, he turned his attention to Whitney. In speaking with Whitney, Officer Willey detected the odor of intoxicating beverages and noticed an open can of beer in the vehicle. These events ultimately led to Whitney being charged with operating under the influence.

[¶ 6] On June 29, 2011, Whitney filed a motion to suppress all the evidence obtained from Officer Willey's stop, arguing that the stop was not justified because Officer Willey had not observed any illegal activity prior to instructing Whitney not to leave. Following a hearing, the court denied the motion to suppress in a written order on November 3, 2011. The court found that there was no articulable suspicion that Whitney was committing a crime or a traffic violation before Officer Willey told him to “wait here” and that Officer Willey had instructed Whitney not to leave because Officer Willey “wanted to verify that neither [Whitney or his passenger] had been involved in the crash.”

[¶ 7] The court then analyzed whether Whitney's seizure was reasonable pursuant to the Fourth Amendment for information-seeking purposes, applying the Brown v. Texas three-factor test adopted in State v. LaPlante, 2011 ME 85, ¶ 9, 26 A.3d 337. The court determined that the gravity of the public concern regarding the misdemeanor crime under investigation was greater than in LaPlante, which involved a civil speeding infraction. It then concluded that Whitney's seizure three or four miles from the accident scene, ninety minutes after Officer Willey's arrival at the scene, was “reasonably related to advancing the investigation.” Finally, the court determined that those two factors outweighed the interference with Whitney's liberty interest.

[¶ 8] Whitney entered a conditional guilty plea on December 19, 2011, following the denial of his motion to suppress, preserving his right to appeal the motion court's decision. He then brought this appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Fourth Amendment Standards

[¶ 9] When the facts before the motion court are not disputed, “we review the denial of the motion to suppress de novo as to issues of law.” LaPlante, 2011 ME 85, ¶ 6, 26 A.3d 337. A seizure violates the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 5, of the Maine Constitution if it is unreasonable. Id. ¶ 8. “In almost all circumstances, a warrantless seizure is unreasonable in the absence of an objectively reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal conduct has taken place, is occurring, or imminently will occur.” Id. (quotation marks omitted). Even a brief, limited governmental intrusion for the purpose of investigation must be justified at its inception by a showing of reasonable suspicion. See State v. Langlois, 2005 ME 3, ¶ 7, 863 A.2d 913 (citing Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). However, a seizure for information-seeking purposes may be reasonable in particular circumstances even in the absence of reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal conduct.²LaPlante, 2011 ME 85, ¶ 8, 26 A.3d 337.

[¶ 10] The United States Supreme Court has explained that “special law enforcement concerns will sometimes justify highway stops without individualized suspicion.” Illinois v. Lidster, 540 U.S. 419, 424, 124 S.Ct. 885, 157 L.Ed.2d 843 (2004) (citing Michigan Dep't of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990); United States v. Martinez–Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976)). Nevertheless, the Fourth Amendment requires that such stops still be reasonable “on the basis of the individual circumstances.” Id. at 426, 124 S.Ct. 885. “[I]n judging reasonableness, we look to ‘the gravity of the public concerns served by the seizure, the degree to which the seizure advances the public interest, and the severity of the interference with individual liberty.’ ” Id. at 427, 124 S.Ct. 885 (quoting Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 51, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979)); see also LaPlante, 2011 ME 85, ¶ 8, 26 A.3d 337 (articulating the Brown factors).

[¶ 11] At the outset, we recognize that the United States Supreme Court has distinguished information-seeking stops at highway checkpoints from random suspicionless stops associated with roving patrols. See Sitz, 496 U.S. at 454–55, 110 S.Ct. 2481 (distinguishing formalized sobriety checkpoint stops from random stops which involve standardless and unconstrained police discretion); Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 657, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979) (“For Fourth Amendment purposes, we also see insufficient resemblance between sporadic and random stops of individual vehicles ... and those stops occasioned by roadblocks where all vehicles are brought to a halt ... and all are subjected to a show of the police power of the community.”); Martinez–Fuerte, 428 U.S. at 558, 96 S.Ct. 3074 (“[T]he circumstances surrounding a checkpoint stop and search are far less intrusive than those attending a roving-patrol stop. Rovingpatrols often operate at night on seldom-traveled roads, and their approach may frighten motorists.” (quotation marks omitted)).

[¶ 12] Officer Willey was engaged in a roving patrol ninety minutes after his arrival at the scene of the accident in an attempt to locate the vehicle's operator, who he believed was engaged in criminal conduct, when he seized Whitney. Officer Willey testified that he did not observe any illegal conduct prior to seizing Whitney, and he stated that he told Whitney not to leave because he “just wanted to verify that he wasn't involved in the crash, or he had a passenger with him and make sure that he hadn't picked somebody up along the way from the crash.” The motion court also found that there was no reasonable articulable suspicion to justify the stop and that Officer Willey seized Whitney because he “wanted to verify that neither [Whitney or his passenger] had been involved in the crash.” Officer Willey's random, suspicionless stop of Whitney in an attempt to locate a criminal suspect is significantly distinguishable from a highway checkpoint stop aimed at...