City of Fargo v. Steffan

• Decision Date: 20 February 2002
• Docket Number: No. 20010175, No. 20010176.
• Citation: 2002 ND 26,639 N.W.2d 482
• Parties: CITY OF FARGO, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Jeremy Robert STEFFAN, Defendant and Appellant. City of Fargo, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Christopher N. Zarak, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: North Dakota Supreme Court

639 N.W.2d 482

2002 ND 26

CITY OF FARGO, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Jeremy Robert STEFFAN, Defendant and Appellant.

City of Fargo, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Christopher N. Zarak, Defendant and Appellant.

Nos. 20010175, 20010176.

Supreme Court of North Dakota.

February 20, 2002.

Stephen R. Dawson, Assistant City Prosecutor, Fargo, for plaintiff and appellee.

Cash H. Aaland, Fargo, for defendant and appellant Jeremy Robert Steffan.

L. Patrick O'Day, Fargo, for defendant and appellant Christopher N. Zarak.

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] Jeremy Robert Steffan and Christopher Neil Zarak appealed from judgments of conviction entered on conditional pleas of guilty. On appeal they challenge the denial of their motions to suppress evidence found as a result of an entry of an apartment made by Fargo Police. Steffan and Zarak contend the police entered an apartment, at which Steffan and Zarak were social guests, without a warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement, thus violating their right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Accordingly, Steffan and Zarak contend all evidence produced by the entry should have been suppressed by the trial court. We disagree and affirm.

[¶ 2] Officers of the Fargo Police Department responded to a report of a loud party. Upon arriving at the scene the police heard loud talking, laughing and music coming from a particular apartment. The police knocked on the apartment's door and it was opened. The police did not enter the apartment, and no one exited the apartment. Through the open doorway of the apartment, however, the police spoke to two residents of the apartment. During this conversation the two residents admitted to being under twenty-one years of age and to having recently consumed alcohol. The police requested entry into the apartment, but did not have a search warrant and were refused permission to enter by the residents.

[¶ 3] A police officer then placed the two residents under arrest and reached into the apartment to effect the arrest. The police officer pulled the two renters across the threshold and out from the apartment to handcuff them.

[¶ 4] Steffan, a social guest at the apartment, then came to the open door, but did not exit the apartment, nor did he close the door. The police who were still outside the apartment asked Steffan his age and if he had been drinking alcohol. Steffan answered he was twenty and that he had recently consumed alcohol. The police then arrested Steffan. The police reached into the apartment, pulled Stefan from the apartment and handcuffed him outside the apartment.

[¶ 5] Zarak, also a social guest, approached the door. He too was asked his age and if he had been drinking. Like Steffan, Zarak answered that he was twenty and that he had recently consumed alcohol. The police arrested Zarak. To effect the arrest police again reached into the apartment, pulled Zarak from the apartment, and handcuffed Zarak outside of the apartment.

[¶ 6] Steffan and Zarak were charged with possessing and or consuming alcohol in violation of Fargo N.D., Municipal Ordinance art. 10-01 § 01 (2000). Steffan and Zarak appeared in Fargo Municipal Court and requested that the cases be transferred to district court. After the charges were transferred, as allowed by N.D.C.C. § 40-18-15.1, Steffan and Zarak filed motions to suppress all evidence discovered by police after the arrest of the two residents. The district court denied the motions.

[¶ 7] Steffan and Zarak argue the seizure of the two apartment residents was an unreasonable invasion into a private home, which led to the discovery of evidence of Steffan's and Zarak's consuming and possessing alcohol. Steffan and Zarak contend had the residents not been arrested Steffan and Zarak themselves would never have come to the door, and thus in contact with the police.

[¶ 8] "The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as Article I, Section 8, of the North Dakota Constitution prohibit unreasonable searches and seizures." City of Jamestown v. Dardis, 2000 ND 186, ¶ 8, 618 N.W.2d 495.

[¶ 9] In United States v. Watson, however, the United States Supreme Court held the warrantless arrest of an individual in a public place upon probable cause was not an unreasonable seizure and thus did not violate the Fourth Amendment. See 423 U.S. 411, 423-24, 96 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976) (holding "we decline to transform [a] judicial preference [for a warrant] into a constitutional rule when the judgment of the Nation and Congress has for so long been to authorize warrantless public arrests on probable cause rather than to encumber criminal prosecutions with endless litigation with respect to the existence of exigent circumstances, whether it was practicable to get a warrant, whether the suspect was about to flee, and the like").

[¶ 10] Likewise, the North Dakota Century Code authorizes a law enforcement officer to arrest a person without a warrant, "[f]or a public offense, committed or attempted in the officer's presence." N.D.C.C. § 29-06-15(1)(a). In such a circumstance the officer personally senses the completion or attempt of the offense and as a result, the officer has at least probable cause to believe an offense has occurred. See, e.g., State v. Hensel, 417 N.W.2d 849, 852 (N.D.1988)

(explaining "[t]o establish probable cause, it is not necessary that the officer possess knowledge of facts sufficient to establish guilt; all that is necessary is knowledge that would furnish a prudent person with reasonable grounds for believing a violation has occurred").

[¶ 11] Therefore, the arrest of a person in a public place for a public offense committed in the officer's presence is neither a violation of the United States' or North Dakota's Constitution.

[¶ 12] Steffan and Zarak urge they were not in a public place, but rather in a private home and the police entry without a warrant was unreasonable. It is true warrantless searches and seizures in a home are "presumptively unreasonable." City...