State v. Arreola

• Decision Date: 20 December 2012
• Docket Number: No. 86610–4.,86610–4.
• Citation: 176 Wash.2d 284,290 P.3d 983
• Parties: STATE of Washington, Petitioner, v. Gilberto Chacon ARREOLA, Respondent.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

176 Wash.2d 284

290 P.3d 983

STATE of Washington, Petitioner,

v.Gilberto Chacon ARREOLA, Respondent.

No. 86610–4.

Supreme Court of Washington.

Argued May 22, 2012.

Decided Dec. 20, 2012.

Tyson Robert Hill, Grant County Prosecutor's Office, Ephrata, WA, for Petitioner.

Susan Marie Gasch, Gasch Law Office, Spokane, WA, for Respondent.

Christina Nicole Dimock, United States Attorney's Office, Sarah A. Dunne, Nancy Lynn Talner, ACLU of Washington Foundation, Douglas B. Klunder, Attorney at Law, Seattle, WA, amicus counsel for ACLU.

Pamela Beth Loginsky, Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Olympia, WA, amicus counsel for Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

Shelley Anne Williams, Office of the Attorney General, Seattle, WA, amicus counsel for Washington State Patrol.

En Banc.

GONZÁLEZ, J.

[176 Wash.2d 288]¶ 1 The issue in this case is whether a traffic stop motivated primarily by an uncorroborated tip, but also independently motivated by a reasonable articulable suspicion of a traffic infraction, is unconstitutionally pretextual under article I, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution and State v. Ladson, 138 Wash.2d 343, 979 P.2d 833 (1999).

¶ 2 We hold that a mixed-motive traffic stop is not pretextual so long as the desire to address a suspected traffic infraction (or criminal activity) for which the officer has a reasonable articulable suspicion is an actual, conscious, and independent cause of the traffic stop. So long as a police officer actually, consciously, and independently determines that a traffic stop is reasonably necessary in order to address a suspected traffic infraction, the stop is not pretextual in violation of article I, section 7, despite other motivations for the stop.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3 The relevant facts, which were found by the trial court following a suppression hearing and affirmed by the Court of Appeals, see State v. Chacon Arreola, 163 Wash.App. 787, 795–96, 260 P.3d 985 (2011), are unchallenged before this court and thus are verities on appeal, State v. Gaines, 154 Wash.2d 711, 716, 116 P.3d 993 (2005).

¶ 4 On October 10, 2009, Officer Tony Valdivia of the Mattawa Police Department responded to a report of a possible DUI (driving under the influence) in progress. SeeRCW 46.61.502. Upon arrival, Officer Valdivia located a vehicle matching the description from the report. Officer Valdivia followed behind the vehicle for approximately half of a mile, which took approximately 30 to 45 seconds. Officer Valdivia did not observe any signs of DUI but did observe that the vehicle had an altered exhaust in violation of RCW 46.37.390. Still without any signs of intoxicated driving, Officer Valdivia then activated his overhead lights and pulled over the car.

¶ 5 The trial court found that Officer Valdivia's “primary motivation in pulling the car over was to investigate the reported DUI,” but this “was not the sole reason for the stop.” Clerk's Papers (CP) at 47. The muffler violation was also “an actual reason for the stop,” and Officer Valdivia “would have stopped the vehicle, once following it, even if he wasn't suspicious of a DUI, and even though his primary purpose for stopping the vehicle was to further investigate a possible DUI.” CP at 48. Officer Valdivia testified that he would sometimes commence a traffic stop for an altered muffler because, as a member of the community, he appreciates concerns about the excessive noise that such mufflers emit. He explained that whether he commences a traffic stop for that particular infraction depends on what else he is doing at the time. Although Officer Valdivia would not go out of his way to chase down a car with an altered muffler, he often would commence a traffic stop if already on the road and behind such a vehicle, so long as conducting the stop would not hinder a more pressing investigation. Officer Valdivia testified about a recent example in which he was on the road and pulled over a car due to an altered muffler and also testified that he had pulled over vehicles for that reason on numerous occasions. Officer Valdivia testified that in this case he made a conscious decision to make the traffic stop because of the altered muffler.

¶ 6 The trial court found Officer Valdivia to be credible as a witness. The trial court thus found that Officer Valdivia “commonly stops vehicles for exhaust violations” and “would have stopped the vehicle anyway for the exhaust infraction even without the previous [DUI] report.” CP at 47. At the same time, Officer Valdivia was relatively more interested in the potential DUI in this particular case, and he admitted that he was motivated to conduct the traffic stop primarily to detect further signs of DUI.

¶ 7 After pulling over and approaching the car, Officer Valdivia recognized Respondent Gilberto Chacon Arreola as the driver, detected an “odor of alcohol,” observed that Chacon's “eyes were red and watery,” and saw “two passengers and several open containers of alcohol in plain view inside the vehicle.” CP at 47. Up to that point, Officer Valdivia had “treated the stop just like any other traffic stop.” CP at 48. Officer Valdivia eventually cited Chacon for the exhaust infraction and for failure to provide proof of insurance and arrested him based on outstanding warrants.

¶ 8 Chacon was charged with DUI and driving while license revoked in the first degree. Chacon argued that the traffic stop was pretextual and sought to suppress all evidence related to the stop, but the trial court concluded that the “stop was not unconstitutionally pretextual” because the muffler infraction “was an actual reason” for the stop. CP at 48. Chacon was convicted of DUI and driving while license revoked in the first degree.

¶ 9 On appeal, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court's findings of fact from the suppression hearing but disagreed with the trial court's resulting conclusion that the traffic stop was constitutional. Chacon Arreola, 163 Wash.App. at 796–97, 260 P.3d 985. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that the muffler infraction was an actual reason for the stop but held that because “it was clearly subordinate to the officer's desire to investigate the DUI report,” and “only a secondary reason,” the muffler infraction could not provide authority of law for the traffic stop. Id. at 797, 260 P.3d 985. The State petitioned this court for review of that purely legal issue, and we granted the petition for review. State v. Chacon Arreola, 173 Wash.2d 1013, 272 P.3d 246 (2012).

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 10 We review conclusions of law in an order pertaining to suppression of evidence de novo. Gaines, 154 Wash.2d at 716, 116 P.3d 993.

III. ANALYSIS

1. The Right to Privacy under Article I, Section 7

¶ 11 Article I, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution protects the “private affairs” of each person from disturbance imposed without “authority of law.” Const. art. I, § 7. This provision of our state constitution is explicitly broader than the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, protecting private affairs broadly and also requiring actual legal authorization for any disturbance of those affairs. See, e.g., Ladson, 138 Wash.2d at 348–49, 979 P.2d 833;cf.U.S. Const. amend. IV (protecting “persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”).

¶ 12 Under article I, section 7, the right to privacy is broad, and the circumstances under which that right may be disturbed are limited. Article I, section 7 is “not grounded in notions of reasonableness” as is the Fourth Amendment. State v. Snapp, 174 Wash.2d 177, 194, 275 P.3d 289 (2012). Instead, article I, section 7 is grounded in a broad right to privacy and the need for legal authorization in order to disturb that right. See State v. Day, 161 Wash.2d 889, 896, 168 P.3d 1265 (2007). Within this framework, “reasonableness does have a role to play” along with history, precedent, and common sense in defining both the broad privacy interests protected from disturbance, id. at 894, 168 P.3d 1265;see State v. Miles, 160 Wash.2d 236, 244, 156 P.3d 864 (2007), as well as the scope of disturbance that is or may be authorized by law, see State v. Duncan, 146 Wash.2d 166, 177, 178, 43 P.3d 513 (2002) (“[S]ociety will tolerate a higher level of intrusion for a ... higher crime than it would for a lesser crime.”); Day, 161 Wash.2d at 897–98 & n. 6, 168 P.3d 1265 (holding that “legislative labeling” of a parking violation as a traffic offense could not justify a warrantless investigative stop for suspicion of that offense); Snapp, 174 Wash.2d at 194, 275 P.3d 289 (noting that the scope of an exception to the requirement of a warrant must be “delimited by its justifications”). Interference with the broad right to privacy can be legally authorized by statute or common law, but only insofar as is reasonably necessary to further substantial governmental interests that justify the intrusion. See, e.g., State v. Valdez, 167 Wash.2d 761, 775–77, 224 P.3d 751 (2009).

¶ 13 Warrantless disturbances of private affairs are subject to a high degree of scrutiny. We have explained that article I, section 7 protects “ ‘those privacy interests which the citizens of this state have held, and should be entitled to hold, safe from governmental trespass absent a warrant.’ ” Ladson, 138 Wash.2d at 349, 979 P.2d 833 (emphasis omitted) (quoting State v. Myrick, 102 Wash.2d 506, 511, 688 P.2d 151 (1984)). Thus, if the right to privacy is implicated, we presume that a warrantless search or seizure violates article I, section 7 unless the State shows that the search or seizure falls “within certain ‘narrowly and jealously drawn exceptions to the warrant requirement.’ ” Day, 161 Wash.2d at 894, 168 P.3d 1265 (quoting State v. Stroud, 106 Wash.2d 144, 147, 720 P.2d 436 (1986), overruled on other grounds by State v. Valdez, 167 Wash.2d 761, 224 P.3d 751 (2009)); see also Snapp, 174 Wash.2d at 194, 275 P.3d 289 (...