The State v. New , 331 Ga. App. 139 ( 2015 )


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  •                                SECOND DIVISION
    ANDREWS, P. J.,
    MCFADDEN and RAY, JJ.
    NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration must be
    physically received in our clerk’s office within ten
    days of the date of decision to be deemed timely filed.
    http://www.gaappeals.us/rules/
    March 12, 2015
    In the Court of Appeals of Georgia
    A14A1876. THE STATE v. NEW.
    RAY, Judge.
    The State appeals from the grant of a motion to suppress filed by Kevin Charles
    New after he was indicted for his alleged possession of methamphetamine with intent
    to distribute, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana, all
    pursuant to OCGA § 16-13-30; theft by receiving, in violation of OCGA § 16-8-7;
    and possession of a drug-related object under OCGA § 16-13-32.2. The State
    contends that the trial court erred in granting the motion because law enforcement
    acted reasonably under the totality of the circumstances and OCGA § 17-5-30 only
    requires suppression of evidence seized during an unlawful search; law enforcement
    acted in good faith; and the purposes of the exclusionary rule are not served in this
    case by suppressing the evidence. For the reasons that follow, we are constrained to
    affirm.
    [T]hree fundamental principles . . . must be followed when conducting
    appellate review of a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress. First,
    when a motion to suppress is heard by the trial judge, that judge sits as
    the trier of facts. The trial judge hears the evidence, and [her] findings
    based upon conflicting evidence are analogous to the verdict of a jury
    and should not be disturbed by a reviewing court if there is any evidence
    to support them. Second, the trial court’s decision with regard to
    questions of fact and credibility must be accepted unless clearly
    erroneous. Third, the reviewing court must construe the evidence most
    favorably to the upholding of the trial court’s findings and judgment.
    These principles apply equally whether the trial court ruled in favor of
    the State or the defendant.
    (Citations and punctuation omitted.) Brown v. State, 
    293 Ga. 787
    , 802-803 (3) (b) (2)
    (750 SE2d 148) (2013). To the extent that “the evidence at a suppression hearing is
    uncontroverted and the credibility of witnesses is not in question, we conduct a de
    novo review of the trial court’s application of the law to the undisputed facts.”
    (Citation omitted.) Jones v. State, 
    291 Ga. 35
    , 36-37 (1) (727 SE2d 456) (2012).
    The undisputed evidence adduced at the motion to suppress hearing shows that
    on or about November 15, 2012, law enforcement officers with Hall County’s Multi-
    2
    Agency Narcotics Squad (“MANS Unit”) learned from a Gwinnett County police
    officer that New possessed or was selling drugs. An officer with the MANS Unit at
    the time of the search testified that he did not know the source of the Gwinnett
    officer’s information, and that he could not have gotten a search warrant because
    “[w]e didn’t have any probable cause” and because “[t]here was no . . . evidence to
    back up that [New] was actually selling” drugs.
    Prior to initiating the search, Agent Casey Ivey, who was working with the
    MANS Unit, contacted the Gainesville Probation Office to verify New’s probation
    status. He was given a copy of New’s sentence, which included a waiver of New’s
    Fourth Amendment rights against search and seizure. Officers then went to New’s
    address. He walked out from the area near his detached garage to meet them, but
    when the officers told him they were there to search him pursuant to his Fourth
    Amendment waiver, New told them his probation had been terminated early. Agent
    Ivey showed New the copy of his sentence, which said he had waived his Fourth
    Amendment rights through the remainder of his probation. According to those
    documents, his probation was not scheduled to end for another three years. New told
    officers at least three times that he was no longer on probation, so prior to initiating
    any search, two other officers each separately verified New’s probation status. One
    3
    officer called Hall County Dispatch, which checked both the National Crime
    Information Center (“NCIC”) and the Georgia Crime Information Center (“GCIC”)
    databases and confirmed that New was on probation; the other officer contacted a
    representative from the probation office, who also confirmed that New was on
    probation and had a valid Fourth Amendment waiver.
    The agents, without seeking or obtaining New’s consent, then searched his
    person, the curtilage of his home, and a detached garage and the apartment above it.
    They found a glass smoking device containing methamphetamine residue in New’s
    left front pocket. When agents retraced the path New walked from his garage to meet
    them, they discovered a butane lighter and a “hide-away can,” labeled as an energy
    drink, that contained methamphetamine and marijuana. Agents also found in an
    apartment above the garage a large sum of money and a GPS device that checked out
    as stolen.
    However, New’s probation for the drug offenses to which he had pled guilty
    had indeed been terminated early and his Fourth Amendment waiver was no longer
    valid. Nicole Johnson, a Hall County probation officer, had completed and submitted
    New’s early termination papers, and on March 14, 2012 – eight months prior to the
    search in question – a judge issued an order approving the early termination of New’s
    4
    probation without a court adjudication of guilt pursuant to the Probation for First
    Offenders Act, OCGA § 42-8-60, et seq.
    After the search, New moved to suppress the evidence, and the trial court
    granted his motion. The State appeals.
    1. The State first contends that the trial court erred in granting the motion to
    suppress because law enforcement acted reasonably under the “totality of the
    circumstances;” thus, it argues that the search was lawful and that OCGA § 17-5-30
    requires suppression only during an unlawful search.
    OCGA § 17-5-30 (a) provides, in pertinent part, that: “[a] defendant aggrieved
    by an unlawful search and seizure may move the court . . . to suppress as evidence
    anything so obtained on the grounds that: (1) ...[t]he search and seizure without a
    warrant was illegal[.]”
    It is undisputed that New was not on probation and that there was not a valid
    waiver of his Fourth Amendment rights at the time of the search. Thus, in the context
    of this enumeration, we must examine whether the warrantless searches of New’s
    property and of New himself, in his capacity as a former probationer with full Fourth
    Amendment rights, were reasonable and lawful.
    5
    “Ordinarily, a search by a police officer must be supported by a search warrant,
    consent, or exigent circumstances.” (Citation omitted.) Prince v. State, 
    299 Ga. App. 164
    , 170 (3) (b), n. 7 (682 SE2d 180) (2009).1 “It is well established that searches
    conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate,
    are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment – subject only to a few
    specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.” (Citations and punctuation
    omitted.) Davis v. State, 
    262 Ga. 578
    , 580 (1) (422 SE2d 546) (1992).
    The State concedes that officers neither sought nor received New’s consent to
    search, and that there was no probable cause to justify a search warrant. The State
    does not argue that any exigent circumstances existed to justify the searches. See
    Brown v. State, __ Ga. App. __, *2 (1) (767 SE2d 299) (Case No. A14A2284, decided
    December 16, 2014) (exigencies could include preventing imminent destruction of
    evidence, pursuing a fleeing suspect, or helping people who are injured or threatened
    with imminent injury). Also, New was not searched incident to a lawful arrest. See
    OCGA § 17-5-1. See generally Lindsey v. State, 
    282 Ga. App. 644
    , 649 (639 SE2d
    1
    In its reply brief, the State contends that officers had a “good-faith suspicion
    for the search based upon information from a law enforcement officer in Gwinnett
    County that [New] was in possession [of] and distributing drugs.” However, this
    standard applies to probationers in certain contexts, and New was not on probation
    at the time of the search. See Prince, supra at 169-170 (3) (b), n. 7.
    6
    584) (2006) (where no probable cause existed to believe defendant had committed a
    crime and where officer lacked any reason to believe a search was necessary for
    safety, a full search of defendant’s person was an unreasonable intrusion).
    Given that New was not a probationer and had not waived his Fourth
    Amendment rights, the searches and seizures were not valid.
    2. The State next argues that the trial court erred in granting the motion to
    suppress because law enforcement officers acted in good faith when conducting the
    searches given their reasonable belief that New was on probation and subject to a
    Fourth Amendment waiver of rights; thus, it contends, the search was reasonable and
    legal.
    However, our Supreme Court has found that Georgia recognizes no good faith
    exception to the exclusionary rule. In Gary v. State, 
    262 Ga. 573
    , 575 (422 SE2d 426)
    (1992), our Supreme Court held that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule
    of United States v. Leon, 
    468 U.S. 897
    (
    104 S. Ct. 3405
    , 82 LE2d 677) (1984), does
    not apply in Georgia. Gary involved the seizure of tangible evidence pursuant to a
    search warrant that was later found to lack probable cause. Gary, supra at 573-574,
    577. The Gary court reasoned that the Leon good-faith exception stemmed from the
    federal judiciary’s modification of a judicially-created exclusionary rule, but because
    7
    Georgia’s legislature had codified a specific exclusionary rule in OCGA § 17–5–30,
    “infusion of the Leon good-faith exception into the statute would be tantamount to
    judicial legislation.” (Footnote omitted.) Gary, supra at 575.
    The State argues that the Supreme Court’s later ruling in Harvey v. State, 
    266 Ga. 671
    (469 SE2d 176) (1996), opens the door to a different result. Harvey involved
    a search incident to arrest where the officer reasonably believed he was exercising a
    valid arrest warrant when, in fact, the warrant had been recalled. 
    Id. at 671-672.
    The
    Harvey court reasoned that because, at the moment the arrest was made, the officer
    “knew” there was a valid warrant, probable cause existed to support the arrest
    because “probable cause must be measured by current knowledge, i.e., at the moment
    the arrest was made and not hindsight.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.) 
    Id. at 672-673.2
    Having found that the arrest was supported by probable cause, the Harvey
    court determined that Harvey’s motion to suppress had been correctly denied. Most
    significantly for our purposes, the court found that “the applicability of the Leon
    ‘good faith’ exception is not implicated by this case.” (Emphasis supplied.) 
    Id. at 674.
    2
    We note that the rationale the Harvey 4 - 3 majority employed in order to find
    probable cause engendered vehement dissents. See 
    id. at 674-678.
    8
    In the instant matter, however, no intermediary action exists – unlike the arrest
    in Harvey – that can be deemed valid or supported by probable cause thanks to
    officers’ reasonable belief, and which could be used to sidestep the direct application
    of the good faith exception to the search and seizure. The only possible justification
    for the search and seizure involving New is the officers’ good-faith belief that he was
    on probation and subject to a valid Fourth Amendment waiver, and that option is
    foreclosed by Gary.3
    We find two more recent Georgia Supreme Court cases more closely aligned
    with the instant action in that they, too, lack an intermediate event such as an arrest
    that was ultimately found to be supported by probable cause and which could be used
    as a springboard to justify a later search and seizure. In Harper v. State, 
    283 Ga. 102
    ,
    106-107 (2) (657 SE2d 213) (2008), where an officer relied on a warrant that later
    was found to be unsupported by probable cause and a valid warrant was required to
    search the defendant’s desk, the evidence seized from the desk had to be suppressed
    3
    We are not unsympathetic to the State’s assertion that the facts herein are of
    sufficient similarity to those in Harvey such that it would be logical to extend the
    ruling in Harvey in this context. However, given the pronouncement in Gary against
    judicial creation of a good faith exception to the statutory exclusionary rule in
    Georgia and our Supreme Court’s apparent conflict in Harvey, we think any extension
    of the holding in Harvey is best left to our Supreme Court itself.
    9
    because Georgia has no good faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Accord Beck
    v. State, 
    283 Ga. 352
    , 352-353 (1) (658 SE2d 577) (2008) (where officers relied on
    a search warrant issued by a person who lacked authority to do so, the warrant was
    invalid, the Court of Appeals erred in upholding its validity, and the trial court erred
    in denying the motion to suppress because Georgia recognizes no good faith
    exception to the exclusionary rule).
    More directly on point in the context of warrantless searches is State v. Gallup,
    
    236 Ga. App. 321
    (512 SE2d 66) (1999), where, after more than 80 storage units were
    vandalized in a single night, police initially searched the units without a warrant. 
    Id. at 321.
    However, during that search, one officer opened a refrigerator and saw what
    appeared to be marijuana. Another officer then obtained a search warrant and seized
    the marijuana. 
    Id. at 322.
    Citing Gary, we affirmed the trial court’s grant of
    defendant’s motion to suppress, reasoning that the officer exceeded the lawful scope
    of his investigation of the burglary and vandalism. 
    Id. at 324
    (1) (c). We also found
    that no exigent circumstances existed to justify the warrantless opening of the
    refrigerator and that “[t]here is in Georgia no ‘good faith’ exception to our statutory
    exclusionary rule, OCGA § 17-5-30.” 
    Id. at 324
    (2).
    10
    The State also cites to several cases involving warrantless searches where a
    person other than the defendant consents to the search, arguing that an officer’s
    reasonable belief that an unauthorized person may consent renders the search valid.
    However, both cases cited by the State, Warner v. State, 
    299 Ga. App. 56
    , 59 (1) (681
    SE2d 624) (2009) (parents consenting to search of adult son’s bedroom in their
    house) and Ford v. State, 
    214 Ga. App. 284
    , 285 (1) (447 SE2d 334) (1994) (adult
    sister consenting to search of her adult brother’s bedroom in her apartment), involved
    situations in which the appellate court ultimately determined that there was some
    evidence supporting the lower court’s factual finding that the person giving consent
    had authority to do so. Those appellate courts were bound by the standard of review:
    “[w]hen reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress, we apply the ‘any
    evidence’ standard, which means that we sustain all of the trial court’s findings of
    fact that are supported by any evidence.” (Citations and punctuation omitted.)
    Warner, supra at 58 (1). We, too, are bound by that standard. In the instant case, there
    is no evidence that New was actually on probation or had a valid Fourth Amendment
    waiver in place at the time of the search and seizure.
    11
    Citing Ford, supra at 286-287 (3),4 the Warner court posits in conditional
    language, that “[a] warrantless search based on unauthorized consent could
    nonetheless be upheld if the law enforcement officer conducting the search
    reasonably (albeit erroneously) believed the consent given was valid.” (Footnote
    omitted, emphasis supplied, and emphasis in original). Warner, supra at 59 (1).
    However, this proposition arguably is dicta in both Ford and Warner as the issue was
    squarely before neither court. We cannot base a decision on dicta in the face of
    Gary’s mandate. See Walker v. State, 
    290 Ga. 696
    , 700 (2) (723 SE2d 894) (2012)
    (where obiter dicta was cited in cases that “either failed to mention or failed to
    analyze the relevant language” of a statute, the dicta was not binding on the court in
    a later case where the issue actually was presented for decision).
    4
    Ford, supra at 287 (3), also cites 
    Davis, supra
    . Davis was issued just days
    after the Gary decision declaring that Georgia recognizes no good faith exception to
    the exclusionary rule. Davis involved a 10-year-old child who consented to a search
    of his parents’ home. 
    Id. at 578.
    The Davis decision was limited by its own terms to
    a single issue: “whether, under the particular facts of this case, the consent to search
    given by the child in this case was valid[,]” and the Davis court determined that it was
    not. 
    Id. at 579,
    581 (1). Davis cites Gary in a footnote without comment or context,
    but this issue was not squarely before the Davis court, and it rendered no decision on
    the interplay of the good-faith exclusion with the evidence gleaned from the illegal
    search. See 
    id. at 580
    (1), n. (1) and 583 (4). See also Ford, supra at 289 (3)
    (Blackburn, J., dissenting).
    12
    3. Finally, the State argues that because the primary purpose of the
    exclusionary rule is to deter police misconduct, its purposes would not be served in
    the instant case where the officers in the field acted in good faith and the trial court
    erred in suppressing the evidence.
    This argument has some merit, although like many issues, there are two sides
    to the story and competing interests are at play.
    Indeed, “[t]he primary reason for the exclusionary rule is to deter police
    misconduct, whether it be negligent or intentional.” State v. Stringer, 
    258 Ga. 605
    ,
    606 (372 SE2d 426) (1988). As the State contends, where police have acted in good
    faith, there would be no deterrent effect. However, as New points out, there may have
    been some negligence by officers checking and updating his probationary file. The
    record shows that a judge had terminated New’s probation eight months prior to the
    search in question; however, his probation records were not fully updated to show his
    status until seven months after the search at issue. If this is the result of negligence,
    logically, excluding the evidence at issue here could have the requisite deterrent
    effect on police misconduct.
    Regardless, our decision herein is not dictated by policy, but by OCGA § 17-5-
    30 and by Gary. Georgia recognizes no good faith exception. However, our
    13
    legislature might wish to consider the rationale in Leon. There, the United States
    Supreme Court found that a judicially created exception to the exclusionary rule was
    permitted given that the Fourth Amendment has no provision “expressly precluding
    the use of evidence obtained in violation of its commands, and an examination of its
    origin and purposes makes clear that the use of fruits of a past unlawful search or
    seizure works no new Fourth Amendment wrong.” (Citation and punctuation
    omitted.) Leon, supra at 906 (II) (A). Further, the Leon court recognized that if too
    strictly applied, the exclusionary rule exacts certain social costs, including an
    interference with the functions of judges and juries.
    An objectionable collateral consequence of this interference with the
    criminal justice system’s truth-finding function is that some guilty
    defendants may go free or receive reduced sentences as a result of
    favorable plea bargains. Particularly when law enforcement officers
    have acted in objective good faith or their transgressions have been
    minor, the magnitude of the benefit conferred on such guilty defendants
    offends basic concepts of the criminal justice system. Indiscriminate
    application of the exclusionary rule, therefore, may well generate
    disrespect for the law and administration of justice.
    
    Id. at 907-908
    (II) (A).
    14
    From a philosophical standpoint, this rationale is valid. The fact that it is not
    accepted in Georgia, because (as outlined in Gary) we have a legislatively created
    exclusionary rule rather than a judicially created exclusionary rule, makes it no less
    valid. Without a good faith exception in this context, we essentially demand
    perfection from police, yet do not require it of prosecutors, defense counsel, or even
    judges.
    Judgment affirmed. Andrews, P. J., and McFadden, J., concur in the judgment
    only.
    15
    

Document Info

Docket Number: A14A1876

Citation Numbers: 331 Ga. App. 139, 770 S.E.2d 239

Judges: Andrews, McFadden, Ray

Filed Date: 3/13/2015

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 11/8/2024