People v. Dandrea, 86SA98
| Decision Date | 26 May 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86SA98,86SA98 |
| Citation | 736 P.2d 1211 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Donald Joseph DANDREA, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | Colorado Supreme Court |
Barney Iuppa, Dist. Atty., Robert B. Harward, Deputy Dist. Atty., Colorado Springs, for plaintiff-appellant.
Dennis W. Hartley, P.C., Dennis W. Hartley, Colorado Springs, for defendant-appellee.
In this interlocutory appeal, the People, pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1, challenge an order of the El Paso County District Court suppressing certain evidence removed by law enforcement officers from the pocket of a coat worn by the defendant, Donald Joseph Dandrea, prior to transporting the defendant to an alcohol detoxification facility. The trial court concluded that the search was not authorized by the provisions of the Colorado Alcoholism and Intoxication Treatment Act, §§ 25-1-301 to -316, 11 C.R.S. (1982 & 1986 Supp.) (the Act), and violated the defendant's constitutional rights. The People contend that the search was proper. We affirm the trial court's order.
At approximately 7:30 a.m. on November 1, 1985, Broadmoor Police Officer Marion Shipley pursued and stopped a pickup truck driven in an erratic manner by Remy Espinoza. 1 The defendant was the sole passenger in the truck. In response to a radio call by Officer Shipley for backup assistance, Officer John Woodward of the Colorado Springs Police Department arrived on the scene. Woodward removed Espinoza from the driver's seat of the pickup truck, arrested him for driving with a suspended driver's license, searched him, and placed him in a police patrol car. Officer Woodward and El Paso County Deputy Sheriff Victor Labrecque, who had also responded to Officer Shipley's request for assistance, then removed the defendant from the pickup.
A cliff descending over 100 feet bordered the roadside. As the defendant got out of the vehicle, he slipped and grabbed the door of the truck. The officers escorted him to the middle of the road. Concluding that he was intoxicated, they discussed what to do with him.
Because the day was extremely cold and the traffic stop had occurred on an isolated mountain road, the officers decided that the defendant's personal safety might be jeopardized if he were left at the scene. 2 They then decided to take the defendant into civil protective custody and transport him to an alcohol detoxification facility pursuant to provisions of the Act. Woodward and Labrecque, accompanied by Shipley, took the defendant to Shipley's police car. Pursuant to departmental policies, 3 Labrecque The defendant was bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing. He then filed a motion to suppress the cocaine, asserting that it had been obtained in violation of both article II, section 7, of the Colorado Constitution and the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution. At the first of two suppression hearings Officers Shipley and Woodward and Deputy Labrecque testified that the search of the defendant was initiated only as a result of the decision to take the defendant into civil protective custody and was limited to a desire to discover any weapons the defendant may have possessed. At the second hearing the acting coordinator of the Pikes Peak Mental Health Center alcohol receiving center testified that persons arriving at the center are initially given a breathalyzer test; that if the test indicates an alcohol level greater than 0.04, 4 the individual is admitted to the center and given pajamas to wear; and that the individual's clothing and personal possessions are then thoroughly searched in the presence of the police officer, inventoried and secured in a locked container. The supervisor also testified that such search could include opening a paper packet such as the one found in the defendant's possession and turning over any discovered contraband to the police.
conducted a pat-down search of the defendant for weapons before placing him in the vehicle. When the thickness of the defendant's jacket made it impossible to ascertain the nature of items in the pockets of the jacket, Labrecque began removing the contents of the pockets and placing them on the trunk of the car. Woodward observed the items, one of which was a small packet of heavy folded paper approximately the size of a razor blade. Concluding that the paper did contain a razor blade, Woodward opened it. He discovered a white, powdery substance, later identified as cocaine. The defendant was taken to the El Paso County Jail and later charged in a one-count information with possession of a schedule II controlled substance in violation of section 12-22-310, 5 C.R.S. (1985), and section 18-18-105, 8B C.R.S. (1986).
The trial court ruled that the police officers had probable cause to take the defendant into civil protective custody for transportation home or to a detoxification facility in accordance with section 25-1-310(1) of the Act; that the statute only empowers police officers to conduct a pat-down search of the person taken into civil protective custody; and that the search of the packet found in the defendant's possession violated constitutional provisions prohibiting unreasonable searches. The trial court further held that the packet should have been quarantined without any further search of its contents and returned to the defendant upon his release from the detoxification facility; that detoxification center personnel lacked authority to conduct any additional search of items such as the one here found in the defendant's possession; and that it would be improper to conclude that the evidence of contraband would have been inevitably discovered had the police officers not conducted an impermissible search prior to transporting the defendant.
The People argue that the Act should be construed to authorize police officers to conduct as complete a search of the person and property of an individual taken into civil protective custody pursuant to section 25-1-310(1) as would be permitted if the individual were placed under arrest based on probable cause that the person had committed a criminal act. 5 We conclude that When statutory language is unambiguous, the intent of the General Assembly is to be gleaned from that language, taking into consideration the entire statute. People v. District Court, 713 P.2d 918 (Colo.1986); Heagney v. Schneider, 677 P.2d 446 (Colo.App.1984). Section 25-1-310(1) states in pertinent part as follows:
the policy and provisions of the Act require rejection of this argument as a general proposition. We further conclude that in the particular circumstances of this case the trial court did not err in concluding that the decision to open the paper packet was unreasonable.
Emergency commitment. (1) When any person is intoxicated or incapacitated by alcohol and clearly dangerous to the health and safety of himself or others, such person shall be taken into protective custody by law enforcement authorities or an emergency service patrol, acting with probable cause, and placed in an approved treatment facility. If no such facilities are available, he may be detained in an emergency medical facility or jail, but only for so long as may be necessary to prevent injury to himself or others or to prevent a breach of the peace. A law enforcement officer or emergency service patrolman, in detaining the person, is taking him into protective custody. In so doing, the detaining officer may protect himself by reasonable methods but shall make every reasonable effort to protect the detainee's health and safety. A taking into protective custody under this section is not an arrest, and no entry or other record shall be made to indicate that the person has been arrested or charged with a crime.... Nothing in this subsection (1) shall preclude an intoxicated or incapacitated person who is not dangerous to the health and safety of himself or others from being assisted to his home or like location by the law enforcement officer or emergency service patrolman.
This language indisputably articulates a clear legislative determination that the act of taking a person into civil protective custody is not an arrest. 6
The conclusion that police officials encountering intoxicated persons must make a distinction between criminal custodial arrests and civil protective detentions is reinforced by other provisions of the Act. Section 25-1-301 sets forth the purpose of the Act as follows:
(1) It is the policy of this state that alcoholics and intoxicated persons may not be subjected to criminal prosecution because of their consumption of alcoholic beverages but rather should be afforded a continuum of treatment in order that they may lead normal lives as productive members of society....
(2) With the passage of this part 3 at its first regular session in 1973, the forty-ninth general assembly has recognized the character and pervasiveness of alcohol abuse and alcoholism and that public intoxication and alcoholism are health problems which should be handled by public health rather than criminal procedures....
Section 25-1-316 states in part as follows:
Criminal laws--limitations. (1) No county, municipality, or other political subdivision may adopt or enforce a local law, ordinance, resolution, or rule having the force of law that includes drinking, being a common drunkard, or being found in an intoxicated condition as one of the elements of the offense giving rise to a criminal or civil penalty or sanction.
....
(3) Nothing in this part 3 affects any law, ordinance, resolution, or rule against drunken driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, or other similar offense involving the operation of a vehicle, an aircraft, or a boat or machinery or other equipment or regarding the sale, purchase, dispensing, possessing, or use of alcoholic beverages at stated times and places or by a particular class of persons.
(4) The fact that a person is intoxicated or...
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