People v. Rivard

• Citation: 230 N.W.2d 6,59 Mich.App. 530
• Decision Date: 12 March 1975
• Docket Number: No. 1,Docket No. 19858,1
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary N. RIVARD, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US

Page 6

230 N.W.2d 6

59 Mich.App. 530

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gary N. RIVARD, Defendant-Appellant.

Docket No. 19858.

Court of Appeals of Michigan, Division No. 1.

March 12, 1975.

Released for Publication June 11, 1975.

Campbell, Lee, Kurzman & Leitman by Thomas G. Plunkett, Bloomfield Hills, for defendant-appellant.

Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., L. Brooks Patterson, Pros. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Before ALLEN, P.J., and T. M. BURNS and MAHER, JJ.

MAHER, Judge.

Defendant was found guilty by a jury of armed robbery, M.C.L.A. § 750.529; M.S.A § 28.797. He was sentenced to a term of from 12 to 30 years in prison and appeals.

At approximately 10:30 a.m. on August 17, 1973, two men with a gun entered the home of Richard Foster. Deborah Foster and her grandmother, Margie Foster, were upstairs. Both women were tied at the wrists and ankles. Taken from the house were paintings, rifles, radios, silverware, jewelry, a stereo, two sapphire rings, $80 in cash and a leather jacket.

Defendant claims that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence, over his objection, a sapphire ring seized from defendant's property locker at the county jail without a warrant. During an inventory of defendant at the police station after his arrest, Detective Roger Van Alstine noticed a blue sapphire ring on defendant's hand. The following morning, after reviewing a list of the property taken in the robbery, Detective Van Alstine realized that this ring could be one of the items taken. The detective went to the Oakland County Sheriff's Department where defendant was jailed, talked to the deputy there, wrote a receipt and obtained the ring from defendant's personal property locker. Defendant moved to suppress the ring because it was seized without a warrant. The motion was denied.

In People v. Trudeau, 385 Mich. 276, 187 N.W.2d 890 (1971), cert. den., 405 U.S. 965, 92 S.Ct. 1169, 31 L.Ed.2d 240 (1972), seizure of a pair of shoes from defendant, on mere suspicion, without a warrant, while defendant was incarcerated on an unrelated charge, was held to be illegal. People v. Robinson, 388 Mich. 630, 632--633, 202 N.W.2d 288 (1972), on the other hand, held that '(i)nformation obtained by a police officer through the exercise of his senses as he observes articles being removed by a prisoner from his pockets and transferred to a receptacle for safekeeping is not information obtained as a result of a search'. The threshold question, of course, is whether there was a search. That is, whether police activity has violated defendant's reasonable expectation of privacy. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). Here, the ring was initially discovered during a casual observation of the article in plain view. It was not first seen because of an unjustified invasion of defendant's right of privacy. See People v. Robinson, 37 Mich.App. 115, 119--121, 194 N.W.2d 537 (1971), concurring opinion of Judge (now Justice) Levin, affirmed 388 Mich. 630, 202 N.W.2d 288 (1972). Nevertheless, what about the 'second look' taken at the ring?

In United States v. Edwards, 415 U.S. 800, 94 S.Ct. 1234, 39 L.Ed.2d 771 (1974), the

Supreme Court upheld the search without a warrant and seizure of a defendant's clothing while he was being held in a local jail after arrest. The majority opinion stated that such a seizure is permissible 'where the clothing or effects are immediately seized upon arrival at the jail, held under the defendant's name in the 'property room' of the jail and at a later time searched and taken for use at subsequent criminal trial'. 415 U.S. at 807, 94 S.Ct. at 1239 (footnote omitted).

In the present case, we do not go so far. The purpose of Detective Van Alstine's 'second look' was connected with the crime in question. After checking a list of the property taken in the robbery, Detective Van Alstine had probable cause to believe that the ring defendant was wearing at the time of his incarceration was material evidence of the crime for which he had been arrested. The item had remained in police custody after having been discovered when defendant deposited his personal belongings with police prior to being jailed. Defendant concedes that no warrant would have been required to seize the ring during the inventory. See People v. Robinson, 388 Mich. 630, 202 N.W.2d 288 (1972). Thus, a search warrant to again look at the ring, already in police custody, does not make sense. Once the ring had been exposed to police view under unobjectionable circumstances and lawfully taken by the police for safekeeping, any expectation of privacy with respect to that item had at least partially dissipated so that no reasonable expectation of privacy was breached by Detective Van Alstine taking a 'second look'. See United States v. Grill, 484 F.2d 990 (CA 5, 1973), cert. den., 416 U.S. 989, 94 S.Ct. 2396, 40 L.Ed.2d 767 (1974).

Moreover, in light of the equivocal identification of this blue sapphire ring by its alleged owner, Richard Foster, the eyewitness identification of defendant by Deborah and Margie Foster, and the matchbook cover seized from defendant showing directions to the Foster home, even the improper admission of the ring into evidence would have been harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See ...