Ryder v. State
| Decision Date | 22 June 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 13545,13545 |
| Citation | 98 N.M. 316,1982 NMSC 66,648 P.2d 774 |
| Parties | Edward RYDER, Nellie Cano and Barry Pressing, Petitioners, v. STATE of New Mexico, Respondent. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Ryder, Cano and Pressing were indicted for distribution of marijuana. The trial court suppressed the evidence obtained from the search warrant. On interlocutory appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court and held that the suppressed evidence was admissible. We granted the petition for certiorari, and we affirm the Court of Appeals but on different grounds than those enunciated by that court.
We discuss:
1. Whether a state court has jurisdiction to hear a case involving a criminal offense committed on a highway within an Indian reservation by non-Indians, which offense is neither against an Indian nor involves Indian property.
2. Whether a non-cross-commissioned Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police officer had the legal authority to detain the defendants so that a cross-commissioned BIA police officer could arrive and issue the driver of the pick-up truck a state traffic citation.
Officer Rocha, a BIA police officer, stopped defendants' pick-up truck for running a stop sign located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 70 and New Mexico Highway 24 within the exterior boundaries of the Mescalero Apache Reservation. When Officer Rocha approached the pick-up, he realized that Pressing, the driver, was a non-Indian. Ryder and Cano were passengers. Officer Rocha was not cross-commissioned under Section 29-1-11, N.M.S.A.1978 (Cum.Supp.1981), and therefore could not issue a state traffic citation. That statute provides in part:
A. All persons that are duly commissioned officers of the police or sheriff's department of any New Mexico Indian tribe or pueblo or who are law enforcement officers employed by the bureau of Indian affairs and are assigned in New Mexico are, when commissioned * * *, recognized and authorized to act as New Mexico peace officers. These officers have all the powers of the New Mexico peace officers to enforce state laws in New Mexico, including but not limited to the power to make arrests for violation of state laws.
Officer Rocha requested or was proferred Pressing's driver's license. He ran a check on it, and asked Pressing to return to the pick-up and wait. Officer Rocha radioed Officer Chino, who was a cross-commissioned BIA police officer, to have him issue Pressing the state traffic citation.
A few minutes later, Pressing got out of his pick-up truck and got into Officer Rocha's patrol car. Officer Rocha smelled the odor of marijuana on Pressing's clothes and then told Pressing to return to his pick-up. Officer Rocha called Officer Chino, asking him to hurry because he believed that the defendants had marijuana in their possession.
Officer Chino arrived ten minutes after receiving the first call from Officer Rocha. Officer Chino checked Pressing's driver's license and issued the state traffic citation to him. He also advised Pressing that Officer Rocha thought Pressing's clothes smelled of marijuana and would like to look inside the cab of the pick-up truck. The search of the cab revealed the presence of marijuana. Officer Chino arrested defendants for the possession of marijuana. A search warrant was obtained and about 270 pounds of marijuana was found in the pick-up truck.
At the suppression hearing, defendants sought to exclude the contraband seized. Defendants contend the stop was illegal because Officer Rocha did not have the authority to issue a traffic citation under state law. Thus, any fruits obtained from the search must be suppressed. The trial court suppressed the evidence based on Officer Rocha's lack of legal authority to detain non-Indians. The Court of Appeals found that under Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191, 98 S.Ct. 1011, 55 L.Ed.2d 209 (1978), a tribal police officer may arrest non-Indians, so long as the Indian authorities "promptly deliver up any non-Indian offender, rather than try and punish him themselves." Id. at 208, 98 S.Ct. at 1020. The Court of Appeals held that Officer Rocha's detainment of the defendants was not illegal and the evidence was therefore admissible.
We first address whether this case is properly in state court. In United States v. McBratney, 104 U.S. 621, 624, 26 L.Ed. 869 (1882), the United States Supreme Court said: "(A state) has acquired criminal jurisdiction over its own citizens and other white persons throughout the whole of the territory within its limits, including (an Indian) Reservation * * *." The underlying rationale for this principle is non-interference with Indian sovereignty. See Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, supra; Williams v. Lee, 358 U.S. 217, 79 S.Ct. 269, 3 L.Ed.2d 251 (1959). This Court held in State v. Warner, 71 N.M. 418, 379 P.2d 66 (1963), that a non-Indian driving on Indian land located within the territorial boundaries of the state, while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, is subject to the jurisdiction of state courts. We conclude that the defendants are properly before the state court.
We next address the issue of whether a non-cross-commissioned BIA police officer had the lawful...
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