USA v. Cormier, 99-30182

• Citation: 220 F.3d 1103
• Decision Date: 07 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-30182,99-30182
• Parties: (9th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PETER JOHN CORMIER, Defendant-Appellant. Office of the Circuit Executive
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Page 1103

220 F.3d 1103 (9th Cir. 2000)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PETER JOHN CORMIER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 99-30182

Office of the Circuit Executive

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Argued and Submitted June 7, 2000--Seattle, Washington

Filed July 24, 2000

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Barry Flegenheimer, Bell, Flegenheimer & Solovy, Seattle, Washington, for the defendant-appellant.

Robb London, Assistant United States Attorney, Seattle, Washington, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, William L. Dwyer, District Judge, Presiding; D.C. No. CR-97-00266-WLD

Before: Procter Hug, Jr., Chief Judge, Melvin Brunetti and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges.

BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge:

Peter Cormier ("Cormier") was convicted by a jury of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. S 922(g). He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. Cormier appeals the district court's denial of his motion to suppress a gun found during a search of his motel room. On appeal, he alleges that his consent was not voluntarily and freely given and that the search of his motel room consequently violated his Fourth Amendment rights. He also contends that the police's use of motel guest registration records in order to discover his criminal history violated the Fourth Amendment. Finally, he argues that the "knock and talk" procedure employed in this case violated Washington state law, a factor that he argues should be incorporated into federal Fourth Amendment analysis. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. S 1291, and we affirm.

I.

On January 13, 1997, King County Detective Brad Ray ("Ray") went to the Quest Inn ("motel"), a motel located in a traditionally high-crime area in Seattle known as the Aurora Avenue "strip," to obtain the motel's guest registration records. After retrieving the records from the motel owner, Ray returned to his office to run a criminal records check on several of the guests staying at the motel. The records check revealed that there was a warrant outstanding on one motel guest and that Cormier, the defendant in this action, had "a fairly extensive criminal history." In addition, the records check showed that Cormier was registered with state authorities as a sex offender.

Ray then contacted Toney Peters ("Peters"), a detective working a shift along the Aurora strip, and asked her if she would be willing to follow-up on Cormier's criminal history. As a result, Peters decided to conduct a "knock and talk" interview with Cormier in his motel room. Shortly after 8:00 P.M. on January 13, Peters approached Cormier's motel room from the outside and knocked on his door. Peters knocked only briefly before Cormier answered. He was wearing only a bathrobe and socks. Peters immediately identified herself as a police officer and asked Cormier if she could speak with him inside his room so that other motel occupants would not overhear their conversation. Cormier stepped back and allowed Peters to enter his room. Peters was dressed in plain clothes but her badge was visible because it was hanging on a chain around her neck.

After entering his motel room, Peters asked Cormier if she could question him. He stated that she could. Peters first asked Cormier whether he was the only guest registered to the room or whether there were other occupants. He responded that he was the only registered guest and that he was staying alone. Peters then informed Cormier that she was familiar with his criminal history and asked him whether he had any drugs or other illegal items in the motel room. He adamantly denied that he had any illegal contraband in the room. Peters then asked whether he would mind if she took a look around, and he stated that she could "go ahead."

Peters first found a bag of clothing located under the bathroom sink and there was some white powder residue visible on the clothes. Peters then moved to a doorless closet where she noticed several leather jackets on hangars. She noticed that the collar on one of the jackets had a hair gel stain, which was very similar to the gel in Cormier's hair. Peters then reached into the pocket of one of the jackets and found a loaded handgun. Cormier never asked Peters to stop searching nor did he ever protest the scope of the search.

After finding the gun, Peters asked Cormier whether the gun belonged to him. He answered that the gun belonged to some fishermen on a boat in Alaska.¹ Peters placed Cormier under arrest after calling Officer Johnson, who was waiting in the car at the time, for back-up assistance. At that point, Cormier was arrested on suspicion that he had violated the Washington Uniform Firearms Act by being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Cormier was escorted to Johnson's police car and driven to jail.

Cormier was convicted by a jury of violating 18 U.S.C. S 922(g), a provision that prohibits a convicted felon from possessing a firearm. During the trial, Cormier filed three motions to suppress the gun found in his motel room. The district court denied all three motions. Specifically, the district court found that Cormier voluntarily consented to the entry and search of his motel room, even if the procedure employed by Peters had violated Washington state law. See State v. Ferrier, 960 P.2d 927, 934 (Wash. 1998) (requiring police officers, when conducting a "knock and talk," to inform the consenting person that they have the right to refuse or revoke consent at any time). Cormier was convicted and sentenced to 120 months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. This appeal followed.

II.

Cormier's first contention on appeal is that the police unlawfully seized the guest registration records from the owner of the Quest Motel. Washington law requires"[e]very hotel and trailer camp [to] keep a record of the arrival and departure of its guests in such a manner that the record will be a permanent one for at least one year from the date of departure." See Wash. Rev. Code S 19.48.020. Although a motel owner is required to keep registration records, Cormier argues that the records are solely for business regulation purposes and not for police investigatory use. Even if Cormier is correct, however, he has still failed to allege a Fourth Amendment violation because he has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the records.

In United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 (1976), the Supreme Court considered whether a bank depositor has a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records, including such items as financial statements and deposit slips. See id. at 441-43. Similar to the Washington statute at issue in this case, the bank in Miller was required by law to retain financial records belonging to its depositors. See id. at 443. Recognizing that bank records are highly personal documents, the Supreme Court nevertheless found that "[t]he depositor takes the risk, in revealing his affairs to another, that the information will be conveyed by that person to the Government." Id. The Court reaffirmed its view that a person does not have a privacy interest in information revealed to a third party and subsequently conveyed to governmental authorities, even if the information is revealed on the assumption that it will be used for a limited purpose and that the third party will not betray their confidence. See id.; see also United States v. Choate, 576 F.2d 165, 175-77 (9th Cir. 1978) (holding that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in mail covers). The key factor, Miller held, is that a person does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in an item in which he has no possessory or ownership interest. See Miller , 425 U.S. at 440.

Although Miller addressed whether a depositor possesses a Fourth Amendment interest in bank records, the analysis is equally applicable to motel registration records. Cormier was required to state his name upon checking into the motel. The motel then assigned him a room and recorded both his name and room number on the guest registration records. Although the police requested the records from the motel, the motel owner agreed to provide the records to the police voluntarily. Furthermore, unlike the bank records in Miller, the guest registration records did not contain highly personal information about Cormier. Instead, the registration records merely stated his name and room number. The Miller rationale is even more compelling in the context of guest registration records because no highly personal information is disclosed to the police. In addition, the one other circuit that has considered the question held, in accordance with Miller, that a guest does not have standing to challenge the use of guest registration records by the police. See United States v. Willis, 759 F.2d 1486, 1498 (11th Cir. 1985); see also 1 Wayne R. Lafave, Search and Seizure S 2.7(c), at 633 (3d ed. 1996) ("[I]f law enforcement agents were allowed to consult business records which merely reveal a person's name or address or telephone number, this does not offend any interests protected by the Fourth Amendment.").

In light of Miller and Willis, therefore, a guest has no reasonable expectation of privacy in guest registration records. Accordingly, Cormier has failed to allege a Fourth Amendment violation in the police's use of the motel's guest registration records.

III.

Cormier also raises the question of whether reasonable suspicion or probable cause is necessary to justify a "knock and talk" by police. The Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures is not limited to one's home, but also extends to such places as hotel or motel rooms. See Stoner v. California, 376 U.S. 483, 490 (1964). Because Cormier had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his motel room, the question is whether he...