State v. Matthews , 2003 N.D. LEXIS 125 ( 2003 )

KAPSNER, Justice,

dissenting.

[¶ 48] I respectfully dissent. I would reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case to allow Matthews to withdraw his guilty pleas.

[¶ 49] A “basic principle of Fourth Amendment law” is that warrantless searches and seizures inside a home are presumptively unreasonable. Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 586, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). In Payton, the United States Supreme Court reiterated that “the ‘physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.’ ” 445 U.S. at 585, 100 S.Ct. 1371 (quoting United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1980)).

[¶ 50] The Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of searches inside a home without a warrant is not absolute; searches and seizures without a warrant are not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment if the government can show the search or seizure falls under one of the well-delineated exceptions to the search warrant requirement. State v. DeCoteau, 1999 ND 77, ¶ 7, 592 N.W.2d 579. For example, law enforcement officers may enter a home and conduct a warrantless search if both probable cause and exigent circumstances exist. Kirk v. Louisiana, 536 U.S. 635, 638, 122 S.Ct. 2458, 153 L.Ed.2d 599 (2002); Payton, at 589-90, 100 S.Ct. 1371; United States v. Davis, 785 F.2d 610, 615 (8th Cir.1986). In such circumstances, “the burden is on the government to demonstrate exigent circumstances that overcome the presumption of unreasonableness that attaches to all warrantless home entries.” Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 750, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 80 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984).

[¶ 51] The majority concludes law enforcement officers were able to enter Matthews’ residence and conduct a warrant-less search for information under the emergency doctrine. In my opinion, the emergency doctrine does not provide an exception to the warrant requirement under the facts of this case. The emergency was reported as occurring at a farmstead in or near Horace. The warrantless search was conducted at Matthews’ residence in Fargo. In upholding the search, the trial court stated, “[t]he officers reasonably believed that the Matthews[’] residence, which coupled as the business address for Leak Seekers, might contain some kind of a record of the underlying debt that the men had gone to collect.” The majority, at ¶ 43, contends the law enforcement officers could also have reasonably believed there remained a possibility that the men may have been inside the house. However, apart from Sergeant Pallas’ testimony alluding to the notion that “[t]here was always that possibility that [the men] were calling from [the residence],” there is nothing in the record to support the majority’s contention. The 911 caller reported that Matthews and Murray were at a farmstead in Horace and that Matthews was being held at gunpoint in the garage. The investigating officers looked in Matthews’ garage in Fargo and communicated to Sergeant Pallas nothing suspicious about the garage. No one answered the door when the officers knocked on it. There was no movement reported from inside the house. The officers left the residence after finding nothing suspicious to warrant an immediate entry.

[¶ 52] The State did not argue, as the majority relies for support, that Matthews and Murray could have been in the Fargo residence. In its brief the State argued “[t]he peace officers in this case weren’t sure where Matthews was, but they did not enter his residence principally because they believed he was in it, ... Rather the officers entered Matthews’ home because they hoped to. find some document leading them to where he and Murray were being held at gun point in rural Horace.” The State reemphasized at oral argument the warrantless search of Matthews’ residence was for information which might lead the officers to the location in Horace where the two men were being held; the officers did not search Matthews’ residence because they believed the two men were being held at gunpoint inside the residence.

[¶ 53] In this case, the officers believed an emergency existed elsewhere; their intent was to enter the premises for investigative purposes, in the mere hope of finding some information that could lead them to the location of the emergency. This Court, in Lubenow v. N.D. State Highway Comm’r, 438 N.W.2d 528, 533 (N.D.1989), emphasized “there must be' a direct relationship between the area to be searched and the emergency.” The premises searched in this case had no direct relationship to the emergency that was reported to be occurring.

[¶ 54] The majority, at ¶ 28, acknowledges the third prong of the Mitchell test. “There must be some reasonable basis, approximating probable cause, to associate the emergency with the area or place to be searched.” With respect to the search of Matthews’ house, the police had nothing more than the hope that the residence might contain information which might lead them to the location where they believe the two men were endangered. The place to be searched must have a “direct relationship” to the emergency. Lubenow, at 533. This prong is not satisfied when the police enter with the mere hope of finding information that might lead them to the location of the emergency.

[¶ 55] The trial court, in denying the suppression motion, reviewed the circumstances of both police visits to Matthews’ home. Regarding the first visit, the court noted the officers found nothing suggesting an emergency at that location: “Unable to make contact with anyone and not finding anything obviously amiss, the officers left the premises.” When the officers went back to Matthews’ home a second time, it was with an investigative purpose. The court found: “The officers reasonably believed that the Matthews[’] residence, which coupled as the business address for Leak Seekers, might contain some kind of a record of the underlying debt that the men had gone to collect.” The trial court did not find that the police believed there could be someone on the premises who needed the type of assistance which is contemplated by the emergency doctrine. Rather the trial court found, as one of the facts which supported the application of the exigent circumstances, “that there might be someone present on the premises who might know something of the affair.”

[¶ 56] In the cases cited by the majority in which the emergency doctrine has been applied and the location of a person associated with the searched dwelling was unknown at the time of entry, the officers who entered the premises without a warrant had an objectively reasonable belief that the premises searched were intimately connected with the emergency need for assistance. In Chaney v. State, 612 P.2d 269, 277 (Okla.Crim.App.1980), a kidnapping case, officers traced a ransom call to the defendant’s home. Officers traced a later call to a public phone where the defendant’s palm print was found. In the later call, the defendant threatened to kill the kidnapped victim because his demands had not been met. It was at this point the officers organized the entry into the defendant’s home. Although the opinion quoted by the majority refers to finding “evidence of their location,” the entry into the residence was based on facts rising to probable cause to relate the defendant’s residence to the emergency.

[¶ 57] The majority also cites Brimage v. State, 918 S.W.2d 466, 501-02 (Tex.Crim.App.1996), for the proposition that officers may conduct a warrantless entry under the emergency doctrine to search for evidence that would lead to a kidnap victim or the victim himself. In Brimage, prior to the officers’ decision to search the defendant’s home without a warrant, the officers knew: (1) a woman had been missing for over two days; (2) the defendant was acquainted with the woman and her car had been found unlocked with her purse in plain view and parked near defendant’s residence in an area where, according to the woman’s boyfriend, she never parked; (3) the woman was observed on the morning of her disappearance driving near the defendant’s house; (4) the woman was wearing a red blouse when last seen and a suitcase abandoned by the defendant contained a piece cut from a red blouse which appeared to have a bloodstain, scissors, and a piece of fabric from a pair of blue pajama pants; and (5) the defendant’s uncle who, on his own, had entered defendant’s home reported finding part of a pair of blue pajamas, other evidence of cut-up women’s clothing, and evidence of a “violent struggle” in the master bedroom. Brimage, at 501-02. The officers had an objective basis to reasonably believe the woman was injured, in need of assistance, and her disappearance was connected with the defendant’s home.

[¶ 58] Similarly, in People v. Lucero, 44 Cal.3d 1006, 245 Cal.Rptr. 185, 750 P.2d 1342, 1347 (1988), officers entered the defendant’s home located across from the park where two missing girls had last been seen when firefighters, who had just been inside the house, reported a large bloodstain on the living room carpet. Although the opinion makes reference to the fact that “clues to their location” may be inside, the entry of the home was based on objective factors, not the mere hope of finding clues about the missing girls current location.

[¶ 59] In each of the cases cited by the majority, the courts found specific, articu-lable and objective facts that directly related the location searched to the emergency that was occurring. In this case, the entry into Matthews’ residence was based only on the hope that, because the residence was also the business location of Matthews, the officers might find some information about the debt Matthews and his companion had gone to collect. If law enforcement could enter without a warrant, solely for investigative purposes, merely hoping to find information which would lead them to the place that an emergency was believed to be occurring, the investigative purpose would swallow the warrant requirement.

[¶ 60] The situation appeared to the officers to be dire; they believed there was a real threat to Matthews and Murray. But all information known to the officers indicated the threat existed somewhere near Horace, not at Matthews’ residence. It is tempting to hold that with a threat so serious as the possible murder of two men, the warrant requirement should give way to the need to act quickly. But the United States Supreme Court has specifically stated the seriousness of the alleged incident that police are investigating is not a basis for finding exigent circumstances to justify a warrantless search. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 394, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978); Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 583-90, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); Thompson v. Louisiana, 469 U.S. 17, 21, 105 S.Ct. 409, 83 L.Ed.2d 246 (1984). The Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable searches and seizures erects a “firm line at the entrance to the house.” Payton, at 590, 100 S.Ct. 1371. “[P]olice officers need either a warrant or probable cause plus exigent circumstances in order to make a lawful entry into a home.” Kirk v. Louisiana, 536 U.S. 635, 638, 122 S.Ct. 2458, 153 L.Ed.2d 599 (2002).

[¶ 61] The State failed to meet its burden to demonstrate an exception to the warrant requirement and overcome the presumption of unreasonableness which attaches to warrantless home entries. Under the circumstances in this case, without a reasonable belief someone was in danger inside the residence, or some other objective basis to directly relate Matthews’ house to the emergency, the officers’ war-rantless entry into Matthews’ home to search for information was unreasonable.

[¶ 62] Carol Ronning Kapsner