People v. Wright, 90SA403

• Decision Date: 11 February 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90SA403,90SA403
• Citation: 804 P.2d 866
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Beverly WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 866

804 P.2d 866

11 A.L.R.5th 947

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Beverly WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 90SA403.

Supreme Court of Colorado,

En Banc.

Feb. 11, 1991.

John Suthers, Dist. Atty., Robert D. Jones, Deputy Dist. Atty., Colorado Springs, for plaintiff-appellant.

Kenneth Dresner, Colorado Springs, for defendant-appellee.

Justice QUINN delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In this interlocutory appeal, the People challenge an order suppressing illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia seized by a police officer during a warrantless search of the defendant's purse at a hospital while she was undergoing an x-ray examination after an automobile accident. The district court ruled that the search of the purse was not based on exigent circumstances and thus was constitutionally unreasonable. We affirm the suppression ruling.

I.

The facts are not disputed. The defendant, Beverly Wright, is charged in the District Court of El Paso County with the following three offenses, all of which were alleged to have been committed on May 14, 1990: possession of a schedule II controlled substance, methamphetamine ¹; possession with intent to distribute or sell methamphetamine ²; and possession of not more than one ounce of marijuana. ³ Defendant pled not guilty to the charges and filed a pretrial motion to suppress on the basis that the evidence underlying the charges was seized without a warrant in violation of the United States and Colorado Constitutions. U.S. Const. amends. IV and XIV; Colorado Const. art. II, § 7.

The evidence presented at the hearing on the suppression motion established the following facts. Shortly before 9:00 a.m. on May 14, 1990, the defendant was involved in a two-car accident at the intersection of Cimarron and Interstate Highway 25 in Colorado Springs. Officer Newell of the Colorado Springs Police Department was dispatched to the scene. When he arrived there, the defendant was still in her automobile and an ambulance and paramedics were at the accident site. The officer approached the defendant's automobile and asked her whether she was all right. The defendant, who was conscious and appeared to be coherent, stated that she was not all right, at which point the officer called over the paramedics to assist her.

Officer Newell again approached the defendant's car in order to speak to her, but the paramedics were administering aid to her so he did not interrupt their efforts. While he was standing near the defendant's vehicle, one of the paramedics handed the officer the defendant's purse. Officer Newell put the purse on the floor of the front seat of his vehicle. The officer did not open the defendant's purse and did not attempt to obtain identifying information from the defendant at this time.

Although the defendant had no obvious cuts or bruises from the accident, she was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Officer Newell completed an on-site investigation of the accident and determined that the defendant was not at fault and would not be charged with any traffic violation. The officer then took the defendant's purse to the hospital and was informed that the defendant was in the x-ray room and would be there for some time. Officer Newell made no attempt to contact the defendant in the x-ray room, although he admitted in his suppression testimony that entering the x-ray room was "no big deal" and that he had done so on many prior occasions. The officer further testified that "during the day shift hours the x-ray techs are not as nice as they are on nights" and he believed that he would probably be in the way if he went into the room.

Rather than attempting to contact the defendant, the officer went to a nurses' "break room" and searched the defendant's purse. The officer was looking for the defendant's driver's license and car registration, as well as proof of insurance, in order to complete his accident report. Officer Newell opened the purse and observed a small zipper bag inside. He opened the bag and found what appeared to be a "cocaine kit" consisting of a spoon, a razor blade, a small slab of marble, and several small pieces of paper. The officer next opened a larger zipper bag inside the purse and found what appeared to be drug paraphernalia, some marijuana, a small container of pills, and some rolls of one-dollar bills. The officer then opened the defendant's wallet, which also was inside the purse, and found the defendant's driver's license inside the wallet. After completing his search of the defendant's purse, Officer Newell contacted a narcotics officer, who arrived at the hospital and stated that the pills discovered in the container were methamphetamine. The defendant came out of the x-ray room approximately thirty minutes later, and the officer informed her of the materials seized from her purse.

At the conclusion of the evidence, the district court made factual findings substantially identical to the aforementioned evidence and concluded that the officer's act of opening and looking into the defendant's purse constituted a search, that the search was not based on probable cause or exigent circumstances, that there was no valid administrative basis for the warrantless search, and that the search was constitutionally unreasonable. The People thereafter filed this interlocutory appeal.

II.

In resolving a motion to suppress, a trial court must engage in both factfinding and law application. People v. Quezada, 731 P.2d 730, 732 (Colo.1987); accord, People v. McIntyre, 789 P.2d 1108, 1111 (Colo.1990); People v. Drake, 785 P.2d 1257, 1263 (Colo.1990). "A court's findings of historical fact are entitled to deference by a reviewing court and will not be overturned if supported by competent evidence in the record." Quezada, 731 P.2d at 732; see People v. Raffaelli, 647 P.2d 230, 236 (Colo.1982); People v. Pineda, 182 Colo. 385, 387, 513 P.2d 452, 453 (1973). A trial court's ultimate resolution of a suppression motion, however, is subject to reversal if the court applies an erroneous legal standard to the facts of the case. McIntyre, 789 P.2d at 1111; Quezada, 731 P.2d at 732-33.

The People in this case have no quarrel with the trial court's findings of historical fact. Indeed, the People concede that at the time of Officer Newell's search the defendant was not suspected of any criminal activity and had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of her purse. Notwithstanding these concessions, the People argue that the suppression ruling should be reversed for either of the following reasons: first, the search of the defendant's purse was justified under the medical emergency exception to the warrant requirement; and second, the officer's administrative responsibility for completing an accident report served to justify the warrantless search of the defendant's purse in order to determine her identity and other information necessary for a complete report. We find the People's arguments devoid of merit.

III.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article II, section 7 of the Colorado Constitution provide that the people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures and thus proscribe all unreasonable searches and seizures. "[I]t is a cardinal principle that 'searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment--subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.' " Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 390, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 2412, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978) (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967)). We are required to apply no less stringent a principle in construing the Colorado constitutional proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures. See People v. Higbee, 802 P.2d 1085, 1088 (Colo.1990); People v. Clements, 661 P.2d 267, 270-71 (Colo.1983).

The contents of a purse or wallet are of an extremely personal nature, and, in the absence of consent, any warrantless search of these items can be justified only under one of the narrowly defined exceptions to the warrant requirement. These exceptions, which to a great extent are encompassed within the rubric of "exigent circumstances," include emergency situations that pose a threat to the life or safety of the person searched or others. See Higbee, at 1088; People v. Thompson, 770 P.2d 1282, 1285 (Colo.1989); People v. Malczewski, 744 P.2d 62, 66 (Colo.1987); People v. Amato, 193 Colo. 57, 562 P.2d 422 (1977); 2 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 5.5(c) (1987). Moreover, because police officers have varied responsibilities and at times must obtain information for purposes unrelated to the detection of crime, warrantless searches and seizures have also been upheld when conducted in good faith and reasonably necessary to the discharge of a legitimate administrative duty, even though incriminating evidence is inadvertently discovered as a consequence. See 2 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 5.5(d). The scope of any exception to a warrant requirement, however, must be strictly circumscribed by a real exigency justifying the initiation of a warrantless intrusion, and the burden is upon the prosecution to establish that any such intrusion was necessary under the circumstances of a particular case. Mincey, 437 U.S. at 390-91, 98 S.Ct. at 2412; Thompson, 770 P.2d at 1285; People v. Hogan, 649 P.2d 326, 331 (Colo.1982).

A.

The People initially rely on the so-called medical emergency variant of the exigent circumstances doctrine...