Schwasta v. United States

• Decision Date: 23 October 1978
• Docket Number: No. 12826.,12826.
• Citation: 392 A.2d 1071
• Parties: William S. SCHWASTA, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

392 A.2d 1071

William S. SCHWASTA, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.

No. 12826.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Submitted July 11, 1978.

Decided October 23, 1978.

Nicolas M. W. DiBella, Washington, D. C., appointed by the court, was on brief, for appellant.

Earl J. Silbert, U. S. Atty. and John A. Terry and Richard W. Hausler, Asst. U. S. Attys., Washington, D. C., were on brief, for appellee.

Before NEWMAN, Chief Judge, and KERN and HARRIS, Associate Judges.

HARRIS, Associate Judge:

Appellant was convicted in a bench trial of possession of marijuana. D.C.Code 1973, § 33-402. He contends that the evidence on which his conviction was based was the product of an unconstitutional search and seizure, and hence that the trial court committed reversible error in denying his motion to suppress the evidence. We affirm appellant's conviction. However, we remand the case for resentencing.

I

The trial court accepted the version of the incident presented by the only witness — Officer Albert Rivera of the Metropolitan Police Department. Officer Rivera testified that he saw appellant drive a motorcycle through a red light while traveling at a high rate of speed. Officer Rivera pursued appellant with his cruiser's emergency lights and siren in operation. After an extended chase, the officer finally stopped appellant and arrested him for reckless driving.

As the two awaited a police transport, appellant told Officer Rivera that "he did not want his motorcycle left there because he had some valuable items in there." When appellant was transported to the station, another officer drove the motorcycle to the station's parking lot for possible impoundment. While it was being determined whether appellant would be released or detained overnight, Officer Rivera located the motorcycle in the parking lot and lifted the cover of the left saddlebag, which was unlocked. There he found six clear plastic bags and two rolled cigarettes, all containing a greenish-brown substance which proved to be marijuana. In the right saddlebag he found a "take-apart .22 caliber rifle and some ammunition for it." Officer Rivera stated his reason for looking into the saddlebags as follows:

At this point because Mr. Schwasta had stated that he had some valuable items in the back of his motorcycle in the saddlebags, I decided to check it out because I don't want to have any claims against me if anything — if Mr. Schwasta came back to his motorcycle and might have said that he was missing items, especially valuable items.

The trial court denied the motion to suppress the evidence, concluding that the officer's search of the saddlebags was reasonable in view of appellant's statement that there were valuables in them. The court found that Officer Rivera was acting in good faith to insure the safekeeping of any valuables he might find. The court also ruled that for Fourth Amendment purposes, a distinction exists between unlocked motorcycle saddlebags and a locked automobile.

At a later trial in which the facts were stipulated, appellant was convicted of possession of marijuana.

II

Whether such a search of a motorcycle is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment is a question of first impression for this court. However, numerous cases have addressed the question of the reasonableness of an automobile search, and we draw from those cases in resolving the issue.

The Supreme Court traditionally has drawn a distinction between automobiles and homes or offices in the context of the Fourth Amendment. "[W]arrantless examinations of automobiles have been upheld in circumstances in which a search of a home or office would not." South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 367, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 3096, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976) [hereinafter Opperman]. Accord, Cardwell v. Lewis, 417 U.S. 583, 589-90, 94 S.Ct. 2464, 41 L.Ed.2d 325 (1974); Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 439-40, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973); Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 48-49, 90 S.Ct. 1975, 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970); Patterson v. United States, D.C. App., 301 A.2d 67, 70 (1973). The Court has articulated two well-recognized justifications for this distinction. First, automobiles, unlike dwellings or other structures, "can be quickly moved out of the locality or jurisdiction in which the warrant must be sought." Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 153, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925), quoted in Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 459-60, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 2034, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). Second, "the expectation of privacy with respect to one's automobile is significantly less than that relating to one's home or office." Opperman, supra, 428 U.S., at 367, 96 S.Ct., at 3096 (footnote omitted).

In explaining the latter justification for the distinction, the Court mentioned several relevant factors in Opperman. Law enforcement officers frequently are brought into contact with automobiles on a noncriminal basis. See Cady v. Dombrowski, supra, 413 U.S. at 441, 93 S.Ct. 2523. "Automobiles, unlike homes, are subjected to pervasive and continuing governmental regulation and controls, including periodic inspection and licensing requirements." Opperman, supra, 428 U.S., at 368, 96 S.Ct. at 3096. Automobile travel is inherently public in that it involves travel on public roads in which both the occupants and the unconcealed contents of the vehicle are in plain view. Further, the police have the authority to remove from the streets and impound illegally parked automobiles which jeopardize the public safety and the efficient movement of vehicular traffic.

Those justifications for treating an automobile differently from a house or an office in the context of the Fourth Amendment apply equally when a motorcycle is the vehicle searched. Motorcycles can easily be removed from the jurisdiction before a warrant can be sought. Further, the expectation of privacy of the rider of a motorcycle certainly is no greater than that of the occupant of an automobile, since the rider is at least as exposed to public view as are the occupants of an automobile. In addition, motorcycles are subject to the same pervasive and continuing governmental regulation and controls as automobiles, including being subject to police impoundment when parked illegally.

The Supreme Court noted in Opperman that when automobiles are impounded, the police generally follow established departmental procedures for securing and inventorying the vehicle's contents. Such procedures are designed to meet three distinct needs: (1) the protection of the owner's property while it remains in police custody; (2) the protection of the police against claims or disputes over lost or stolen property, and (3) the protection of the police from potential danger. 428 U.S. at 369, 96 S.Ct. 3092. The Opperman Court noted that "inventories pursuant to standard police procedures" which are designed to meet these needs of the owner and the police are reasonable for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.¹ Id., at 372, 96 S.Ct. at 3098. Implicit in the Court's holding was the further requirement that the inventory take place after the police lawfully have acquired custody of the vehicle. Arrington v. United States, D.C.App., 382 A.2d 14, 18 (1978). See, e. g., Harris v. United States, 390 U.S. 234, 236-37, 88 S.Ct. 992, 19 L.Ed.2d 1067 (1968) (Douglas, J., concurring); Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 368, 84 S.Ct. 881, 11 L.Ed.2d 777 (1964); Pigford v. United States, D.C.App., 273 A.2d 837, 839 (1971).

Applying these principles here, a proper resolution of this case requires us to address two questions: (1) Was the motorcycle lawfully possessed by the police?; and (2) was the inventory search procedure conducted by the police pursuant to standard police procedures properly designed to meet the three above-mentioned needs?

We previously have been faced with the question of whether a motor vehicle which was searched by the police at the station house was lawfully in their possession. In United States v. Pannell, D.C.App., 256 A.2d 925 (1969), we affirmed the suppression of narcotics paraphernalia which were seized from a defendant's automobile on the parking lot of a police station after he had been arrested and taken there for booking on the charge of driving without a valid permit. Following his arrest, Pannell had driven his automobile to the station lot at the direction of the police. It was impounded shortly thereafter. We noted that the automobile had not been impounded either as evidence or pursuant to a statute forfeiting automobiles used for specific illicit purposes, as was true in the cases relied upon by the government. The only justification offered by the police for the impoundment was that Pannell had no one available to remove his car from the precinct lot "within a reasonable time." That justification was undermined, however, by the fact that Pannell had advised the officers that he did have someone who could come for the car after work. We also found it significant that: (1) the decision to impound the automobile was made after the police learned that Pannell had lost his license because of prior narcotics use; and (2) the search was conducted before he had been booked for the traffic offense for which he had been arrested. Under those circumstances, we held that the police had no valid reason to impound Pannell's car and that the search therefore was impermissible.

In Mayfield v. United States, D.C.App., 276 A.2d 123 (1971), we also relied on the requirement of lawful police possession of an automobile prior to a station house search in reversing the trial court's admission of evidence seized during such a search. In Mayfield, the appellant, driving with two friends in a downtown area, was stopped by a police officer and asked to produce his license and registration. When the officer saw a stamped notation on the permit reflecting a suspension, he arrested Mayfield for operating a motor vehicle without a valid license. Mayfield was...