People v. Hauseman

• Citation: 900 P.2d 74
• Decision Date: 30 June 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94SA383,94SA383
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Paul HAUSEMAN, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Colorado

Page 74

900 P.2d 74

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Paul HAUSEMAN, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 94SA383.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

June 30, 1995.

David J. Thomas, Dist. Atty., First Judicial Dist., Donna Skinner Reed, Chief Appellate Deputy Dist. Atty., Golden, for plaintiff-appellant.

Julie Evans Anderson, Denver, for defendant-appellee.

Justice KIRSHBAUM delivered the Opinion of the Court.

The People filed this interlocutory appeal pursuant to C.A.R. 4.1 seeking review of the trial court's order granting a motion filed by the defendant, Paul J. Hauseman, to suppress evidence seized from his vehicle by law enforcement officers. Because we conclude that the trial court applied an erroneous legal standard, we reverse the order and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

I

On December 16, 1993, a North Metro Drug Task Force ("NMDTF") detective received information from a confidential informant that Hauseman was then at work at a business establishment located on South Colorado Boulevard in Denver, Colorado, and that a pound of marijuana was or would be located behind the rear seat of Hauseman's car. The detective, who knew that Hauseman was the subject of an outstanding traffic warrant ¹ and lived in the city of Wheatridge, Colorado, relayed all of this information to NMDTF detective James Lorentz. Lorentz in turn contacted Wheatridge police officer David W. Piermattei, and Lorentz and Piermattei agreed that NMDTF officers would follow Hauseman into Wheatridge where officer Piermattei would arrest him.

Hauseman was placed under surveillance at his place of employment by Lorentz and other NMDTF officers. When Hauseman entered his car and drove away from his place of employment, the NMDTF officers followed him. When Hauseman entered Wheatridge, Lorentz notified Piermattei that Hauseman was traveling west on I-70 and was speeding. Piermattei subsequently stopped Hauseman, placed him under arrest, and impounded Hauseman's vehicle pursuant to standard Wheatridge Police Department procedures. ² Before the vehicle was towed away, Piermattei conducted an inventory search thereof. In the course of searching the hatchback area behind the back seat of the vehicle, ³ Piermattei found a cardboard whiskey box containing approximately one pound of marijuana.

Hauseman was charged with the offenses of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, in violation of section 18-18-406(8)(b) 8B C.R.S. (1994 Supp.), and possession of greater than eight ounces of marijuana, in violation of section 18-18-406(4)(b), 8B C.R.S. (1994 Supp.). He subsequently filed a motion to suppress the marijuana on the ground that the search of his vehicle constituted a warrantless investigatory search disguised as an inventory search in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article II, section 7 of the Colorado Constitution.

At the conclusion of a hearing on the motion, the trial court found that Lorentz and Piermattei had conducted the search of Hauseman's car substantially pursuant to standard Wheatridge Police Department procedures. The trial court also found that in conducting the search Lorentz and Piermattei had "dual purposes" to both inventory the car and locate the marijuana. Although the trial court found that the search "was a valid inventory" search, the trial court stated that the officers' "concern about finding the marijuana was of more significance than their concern about making the arrest on the warrant." Relying on Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 107 S.Ct. 738, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987), and People v. Rutovic, 193 Colo. 397, 566 P.2d 705 (1977), the trial court concluded that the officers had not conducted the inventory search in good faith and that the inventory search was illegal. The court therefore granted Hauseman's motion to suppress the introduction of the marijuana into evidence.

II

A

This case requires a determination of whether the arrest of Hauseman and the resulting inventory search of his vehicle violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. ⁴ The Fourth Amendment provides in pertinent part as follows:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated....

U.S. Const. amend. IV. A warrantless search and any resulting seizure are presumptively unreasonable unless the search falls within certain recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 133 n. 4, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 2306 n. 4, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990); Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 439, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 2527, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973); People v. Boff, 766 P.2d 646, 648 (Colo.1988). The warrantless search of a vehicle lawfully impounded by law enforcement officials designed to produce an inventory of the contents of that vehicle and conducted pursuant to routine administrative procedures is one such exception. Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 371, 107 S.Ct. 738, 741, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987); Dombrowski, 413 U.S. at 439, 93 S.Ct. at 2527; People v. Hicks, 197 Colo. 168, 171, 590 P.2d 967, 968 (1979); People v. Rutovic, 193 Colo. 397, 398, 566 P.2d 705, 706 (1977); see Illinois v. Lafayette, 462 U.S. 640, 643, 103 S.Ct. 2605, 2608, 77 L.Ed.2d 65 (1983); South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 367-76, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 3096-3101, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976).

Warrantless searches as well as searches conducted pursuant to a warrant must be reasonable to satisfy Fourth Amendment requirements. Lafayette, 462 U.S. at 643, 103 S.Ct. at 2608; Boff, 766 P.2d at 648. Inventory searches conducted pursuant to standard police department procedures which regulate an officer's discretion in conducting such searches are in general considered reasonable. Florida v. Wells, 495 U.S. 1, 5, 110 S.Ct. 1632, 1635-36, 109 L.Ed.2d 1 (1990); Bertine, 479 U.S. at 377, 107 S.Ct. at 744; cf. United States v. Hellman, 556 F.2d 442, 444 (9th Cir.1977) (inventory search of impounded car invalid because not conducted pursuant to departmental procedures). In Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 107 S.Ct. 738, the Supreme Court held that an inventory search of a closed backpack in an impounded vehicle conducted pursuant to standard police department procedures did not violate Fourth Amendment principles. The Court stated that because the inventory search furthered "police caretaking procedures designed to secure and protect vehicles and their contents within police custody," ⁵ such searches are generally reasonable. Id. at 372, 107 S.Ct. at 741. The Court explained that the scope of an inventory search is constrained by the requirement that any discretion granted law enforcement officers in conducting such a search be "exercised according to standard criteria and on the basis of something other than suspicion of evidence of criminal activity." Id. at 375, 107 S.Ct. at 743; accord Wells, 495 U.S. at 4, 110 S.Ct. at 1635. ⁶

However, strict adherence to standard police department procedures in conducting an inventory search does not necessarily satisfy the Fourth Amendment reasonableness standard. See Opperman, 428 U.S. at 376, 96 S.Ct. at 3100; Hicks, 197 Colo. at 171, 590 P.2d at 971; Rutovic, 193 Colo. at 398, 566 P.2d at 706. We have previously recognized that "[t]he words 'routine inventory search' are not a 'talisman in whose presence the Fourth Amendment fades away.' " Hicks, 197 Colo. at 171, 590 P.2d at 969 (quoting Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 461, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2035, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971)). The Supreme Court has suggested that it will more carefully scrutinize the behavior of law enforcement officers conducting an inventory search pursuant to standard police department procedures where there is evidence that the officers "acted in bad faith or for the sole purpose of investigation." Bertine, 479 U.S. at 372, 107 S.Ct. at 741. Thus an inventory search may not be conducted as a subterfuge for a criminal investigation to avoid more stringent requirements, such as the requirement of procuring a search warrant, which apply to investigatory searches. Wells, 495 U.S. at 4, 110 S.Ct. at 1635 (inventory search must not be used as a ruse for general rummaging or to discover incriminating evidence); Bertine, 479 U.S. at 372, 107 S.Ct. at 741 (inventory search might be invalid if officers act in bad faith or for the sole purpose of investigation); Opperman, 428 U.S. at 376, 96 S.Ct. at 3100 (inventory search may not be used as a pretext to conceal an improper investigatory search).

An arrest, even if valid, may also be a pretext to disguise otherwise impermissible law enforcement activity. A pretextual arrest is per se illegal and evidence obtained as a result of that arrest is inadmissible. State v. Hoven, 269 N.W.2d 849, 853 (Minn.1978). In Hoven, police officers received information that the defendant was preparing to leave the state and was carrying controlled substances in his vehicle. The defendant was placed under surveillance and two hours later was arrested on two outstanding arrest warrants for minor traffic offenses. Although the defendant consented to a search of his vehicle that resulted in the seizure of contraband, the court suppressed the evidence on the ground that "the pretextual nature of the arrest made the subsequent search of defendant's vehicle constitutionally impermissible." Id. at 852. Although the court assumed that the officers were acting pursuant to standard police department procedures, it concluded that the inference was "inescapable that the arrest was made and timed primarily to facilitate the warrantless search." Id. at 853. The officers in Hoven had deliberately refrained from arresting the defendant on an earlier occasion so that they might later arrest him in or by his car and thus gain an opportunity to inventory the car after the arrest. Id. at 852-53.

In determining whether an officer's conduct is calculated to hide an...