State v. Anyan

• Decision Date: 30 December 2004
• Docket Number: No. 02-639.,02-639.
• Citation: 2004 MT 395,325 Mont. 245,104 P.3d 511
• Parties: STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Tanya Marie ANYAN, Jay Cleveland, and Troy Klein, Defendants and Appellants.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

104 P.3d 511

2004 MT 395

325 Mont. 245

STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Tanya Marie ANYAN, Jay Cleveland, and Troy Klein, Defendants and Appellants.

No. 02-639.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Argued September 11, 2003.

Submitted September 25, 2003.

Decided December 30, 2004.

For Appellants: Kristina Guest, Appellate Defender Office, Helena, Montana (attorney for Klein); John O. Putikka, Thompson Falls, Montana (attorney for Anyan); Carolyn S. Gill, Plains, Montana (Attorney for Cleveland).

For Respondent: Mike McGrath, Montana Attorney General, John Paulson, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Montana; Robert Zimmerman, Sanders County Attorney, Thompson Falls, Montana.

Justice JAMES C. NELSON delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 Appellants Tanya Marie Anyan, Jay Cleveland, and Troy Klein were each convicted of drug-related felonies in the District Court for the Twentieth Judicial District, Sanders County, after pleading guilty to the charges pursuant to a plea agreement. We reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion.

¶ 2 We address the following issue on appeal: Whether law enforcement officers' no-knock entry into Appellants' house to execute a search warrant violated Appellants' constitutional rights to privacy and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Factual and Procedural Background

¶ 3 In late May 2000, Officer Christopher Nichols of the Thompson Falls Police Department was assigned to investigate suspected illegal drug activity occurring at a rented house in Thompson Falls. During the course of the investigation, Officer Nichols determined that the occupants of the house were involved in operating a clandestine methamphetamine lab. Hence, on July 11, 2000, Officer Nichols requested the assistance of Sergeant Allen Bardwell, an officer with the Kalispell Police Department and team leader of the Kalispell SWAT team, in serving a search warrant. After meeting with Officer Nichols and learning that the house to be searched was a large structure consisting of three levels with numerous rooms and that it might be occupied by as many as fifteen individuals, Sergeant Bardwell contacted the Flathead County Sheriff Department's SWAT team for assistance. The commander of the Flathead County SWAT team, Undersheriff Chuck Curry, agreed to assist in the service of the warrant.

¶ 4 On July 24, 2000, Officer Nichols obtained a warrant to search the residence. In his application for the search warrant, Officer Nichols related that "out of the ordinary traffic" was seen coming and going from the residence and that a great number of the vehicles were from Washington state. Officer Nichols also stated that he checked the license plates on three of the vehicles that he had seen at the residence. One of them was registered to Klein. Officer Nichols then checked with Spokane County and discovered that Klein had been charged in the past with committing drug offenses. According to Officer Nichols, Klein also had three active felony warrants.

¶ 5 Officer Nichols also related in his search warrant application that several other individuals that had been seen near the residence had been charged with drug offenses. In addition, one of the vehicles seen at the residence was registered to an individual who had felony convictions for burglary and child rape. Officer Nichols also related that during his investigation, he discovered that there was a surveillance camera located in the second story east window of the residence and that it appeared to be pointed at the driveway.

¶ 6 Officer Nichols had discovered during the course of his investigation that an individual matching Klein's description had purchased ammunition from a local hardware store. While he did not include this information in the application for the search warrant, Officer Nichols did share this information with Sergeant Bardwell and Undersheriff Curry. However, the two-and-a-half month investigation, which included surveillance of the home, had yielded no observation or reports of weapons sighted in the home or in the possession of any of the individuals in the home. Officer Nichols also discovered that Klein had a warrant for his arrest in connection with a nonviolent felony parole violation.

¶ 7 On the night of July 25, 2000, the two SWAT teams, totaling fifteen men, and officers from several other law enforcement agencies converged on Thompson Falls at approximately 1:45 a.m. Officer Nichols, Sergeant Bardwell, and Undersheriff Curry discussed the manner of executing the search warrant, including the question of whether the officers should knock and announce their presence and purpose before entering the house. They decided that the SWAT teams should enter the house at 4:00 a.m. without knocking and announcing.

¶ 8 On the morning of the raid, while the SWAT teams and other officers convened at the Thompson Falls Police Department for briefing, Officer Nichols ordered two officers to conduct surveillance on the residence from an upstairs bedroom of the house across the street. Officer Shawna Reinschmidt was watching the activities in the front of the house at 2:20 a.m. when a car, which had left the house about five minutes earlier, returned, and the male driver got out of the car and yelled at everyone to get inside and turn off the lights. Officer Reinschmidt reported her observations to the SWAT team assembled at the police department. Fearing that their presence may have been detected, the officers decided not to wait until 4:00 a.m. to execute the warrant. Officer Reinschmidt continued to observe the house and although she saw some movement in the kitchen, she later testified that her observations were entirely consistent with the occupants preparing to retire for the night.

¶ 9 Law enforcement officers executed their no-knock raid at 3:00 a.m. As the officers approached the house they observed that it was quiet and most of the lights were off. None of the officers detected any activity or heard anything consistent with attempts to escape or resist arrest. There was no indication that any of the occupants had detected the officers' presence or anticipated the raid. There was also no indication that the house had been barricaded or booby trapped.

¶ 10 The officers approached the home from the west and the north, outside of the range of the surveillance camera located on the east side of the house. The Kalispell SWAT team was assigned to enter the house at the upper level from an outside stairway and the Flathead County SWAT team was assigned to enter the house from the ground floor. At least six officers from the Kalispell SWAT team entered the top floor by using a steel ram to break the doorjamb. They confronted four of the occupants of the house who were in various stages of sleep and preparation for sleep. Another seven or eight officers from the Flathead County SWAT team entered the house through the downstairs kitchen door confronting the two occupants residing in that portion of the house. Another five to ten officers surrounded the house. The officers did not knock and announce their presence prior to entering the house.

¶ 11 The six occupants of the house were all arrested, removed from the house, decontaminated and given clean jail clothing. Officers from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Montana Department of Justice then entered the house to collect evidence, disassemble the meth lab and decontaminate the area.

¶ 12 Appellants were each charged in separate proceedings with conspiracy to manufacture dangerous drugs; criminal production or manufacture of dangerous drugs; criminal possession of dangerous drugs; and possession of dangerous drugs with intent to sell. Appellants each filed motions to suppress the evidence seized during the search of the residence, based in part on the officers' failure to knock and announce their presence prior to entering the house to execute the search warrant. The District Court denied the motions without an evidentiary hearing.

¶ 13 Cleveland and Anyan entered into plea agreements with the State, reserving the right to appeal from the District Court's adverse rulings on their motions to suppress. Cleveland pled guilty to criminal possession of dangerous drugs and was sentenced to a term of five years in Montana State Prison (MSP), with two years suspended. Anyan pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture dangerous drugs and criminal possession of dangerous drugs. The District Court deferred imposition of Anyan's sentence for concurrent terms of five years and placed her on probation subject to certain conditions, including payment of $9,000 in restitution for her share of the damages caused to the rented house by the chemicals from the methamphetamine lab. Cleveland and Anyan appealed the District Court's failure to hold an evidentiary hearing in connection with their motions to suppress and to enter Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law as required by § 46-13-104(3), MCA. On June 5, 2001, this Court consolidated the two appeals.

¶ 14 Klein entered into a plea agreement on June 19, 2001, wherein he reserved the right to appeal from the District Court's ruling on his motion to suppress. Klein pled guilty to criminal production or manufacture of dangerous drugs and possession of dangerous drugs with intent to sell. The District Court sentenced Klein to a term of ten years in MSP for the charge of criminal production or manufacture of dangerous drugs and a concurrent term of twenty years, with ten years suspended for the charge of possession with intent to sell. Klein filed a notice of appeal on August 13, 2001.

¶ 15 On February 7, 2002, this Court issued an Order in the consolidated appeals of Anyan and Cleveland, dismissing the appeals without prejudice and remanding the cases to the District Court for an evidentiary hearing on the motions to suppress and the entry of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Klein's appeal was also...