State v. Button

• Decision Date: 04 October 2013
• Docket Number: No. 12–270.,12–270.
• Parties: STATE of Vermont v. David BUTTON.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

86 A.3d 1001

2013 VT 92

STATE of Vermont

v.David BUTTON.

No. 12–270.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

Oct. 4, 2013.

Heather J. Brochu, Franklin County Deputy State's Attorney, St. Albans, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Matthew F. Valerio, Defender General, Anna Saxman, Deputy Defender General, and Adrienne Shea, Law Clerk, Montpelier, for Defendant–Appellant.

Present: REIBER, C.J., DOOLEY, SKOGLUND, BURGESS and ROBINSON, JJ.

ROBINSON, J.

¶ 1. This case asks us to decide whether a motor-vehicle stop was justified by the community caretaking doctrine. Defendant David Button contends that it was not and argues that the trial court erroneously denied his motion to suppress the evidentiary fruits of the stop. We reverse.

¶ 2. The trial court found the following facts, which defendant does not dispute. Shortly before midnight on November 19, 2011, defendant was driving west along Perley Road, a gravel country road in a scarcely populated area of Berkshire. At approximately 11:28 p.m., Trooper Jay Riggen was traveling east along the same road and saw defendant's approaching vehicle. Defendant was not speeding or driving erratically, and his vehicle did not display any equipment defects or violations. The trooper decided to turn his cruiser around and follow defendant for a while.

¶ 3. The trooper followed defendant's car for some distance, all the while observing no speeding, erratic driving, equipment defects, or other violations involving either the vehicle or its operation. Eventually, defendant pulled his car to the right side of the road and stopped with the engine and lights on. Perley Road does not have a shoulder or breakdown lane, and defendant's car remained within the traveled portion of the road. The car did not block the visibility of oncoming traffic and would not have affected eastbound traffic; westbound traffic would have had to briefly cross into the eastbound lane in order to get around the car. There was very little traffic on the road that night, and defendant and the trooper encountered no other travelers during the stop.

¶ 4. There were no businesses, homes, or other structures in the area that would explain why defendant stopped his car there. The trooper, who had been following at a distance of two or three car-lengths behind the car, also pulled over and stopped. The trooper then waited to see what the car or its driver would do next, but nothing immediate happened. The operator did not get out of the car, turn on the car's emergency lights, signal for the trooper to pass, ask for help, or take any other observable action. The officer did not observe any sign that the car was disabled, such as smoke coming from the car.

¶ 5. After about thirty seconds, the trooper decided to turn on his blue lights. He testified that he thought it was “unusual” for the car to stop where it did, and decided that he should approach defendant'scar to make sure defendant was “alright.” While speaking with defendant, the trooper made observations that eventually led to defendant's arrest for suspected driving under the influence in violation of 23 V.S.A. § 1201(a)(2).

¶ 6. Defendant filed a motion to suppress, arguing that the warrantless stop of his vehicle violated his rights under the U.S. and Vermont Constitutions. Specifically, he argued that the officer activated his blue lights and thereby seized defendant without reasonable suspicion of a violation. In response, the State did not rely on reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity, but instead argued that the stop was justified on the basis of the “community caretaking doctrine.” After thoughtfully considering our precedents in this realm, the court agreed and denied defendant's motion to suppress. Defendant subsequently entered a conditional guilty plea to the charge of driving under the influence third offense.

¶ 7. Defendant now appeals, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. Specifically, defendant argues that the community caretaking doctrine does not justify the stop because the objective facts, as observed by the trooper, were insufficient to support a reasonable belief that defendant needed help.

¶ 8. “On appeal of a motion to suppress, we review the trial court's legal conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error.” State v. Paro, 2012 VT 53, ¶ 2, 192 Vt. 619, 54 A.3d 516 (mem.). Because the defendant challenges only the trial court's legal conclusions regarding the applicability of the community caretaking doctrine, our review is de novo. See id.

¶ 9. The State does not argue that the trooper's actions—driving behind defendant, pulling over behind him, activating blue lights and approaching defendant's car—did not amount to a seizure. See State v. Burgess, 163 Vt. 259, 261, 657 A.2d 202, 203 (1995). The Vermont and U.S. Constitutions generally require that police have, at a minimum, reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot before they seize someone. State v. Edwards, 2008 VT 23, ¶ 4, 183 Vt. 584, 945 A.2d 915 (mem.). However, in recognition of the fact that one of the essential roles of police officers is to enhance public safety by assisting those in distress, courts have recognized a “community caretaking” basis for a lawful warrantless seizure. State v. Marcello, 157 Vt. 657, 658, 599 A.2d 357, 358 (1991) (mem.). The propriety of a traffic stop based on the community caretaking doctrine turns on “whether there were specific and articulable facts objectively leading the officer to reasonably believe that the defendant was in distress or needed assistance, or reasonably prompted an inquiry in that regard.” Edwards, 2008 VT 23, ¶ 8, 183 Vt. 584, 945 A.2d 915; see also State v. St. Martin, 2007 VT 20, ¶ 6, 181 Vt. 581, 925 A.2d 999 (mem.) (vehicle stops are proper under community caretaking doctrine when officer can particularly describe “a perceived emergency or [an] indication of imminent threat to specific individuals” before effectuating stop). The key to the constitutional permissibility of such police action is reasonableness, Marcello, 157 Vt. at 658, 599 A.2d at 358. Community caretaking functions may be “totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute.” Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 441, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973).

¶ 10. The present case is a close one. It is unlike our earlier community caretaking stop cases in which the defendant or a third party expressly communicated to an officer a message suggesting that someone was in distress. See State v. Campbell, 173 Vt. 575, 576, 789 A.2d 926, 928 (2001) (mem.) (holding that defendant's act of flashing high beams at marked police cruiser while defendant was parked by information booth on particularly stormy night provided reasonable basis to believe that people in car were seeking assistance); Marcello, 157 Vt. at 657–58, 599 A.2d at 358 (affirming trial court's decision that officer was reasonable in his belief that defendant needed aid when another motorist informed officer that there was “something wrong” with defendant).

¶ 11. Nor is it clearly decided by our prior cases involving police seizures of individuals in cars parked on the roadside or in designated lots. We have held that where a car was pulled over in an abnormal and unsafe location—barely off the travel lane of the highway, late at night, and near a curve “such that it presented a potential hazard to other motorists negotiating the curve in the dark,” the officer did have reasonable grounds to believe the driver needed help. Edwards, 2008 VT 23, ¶¶ 6–7, 183 Vt. 584, 945 A.2d 915; see also State v. Theetge, 171 Vt. 167, 171, 759 A.2d 496, 499 (2000) (holding stop of driver pulled over in breakdown lane of interstate highway was justified because driver either violated law prohibiting parking in breakdown lane in absence of emergency or had an emergency).

¶ 12. On the other hand, in State v. Jestice, we held that the fact that a car was parked at nighttime in a relatively busy lot by a trailhead near a state highway that was regularly patrolled by police was not sufficient to support a seizure predicated on the community caretaking doctrine. 2004 VT 65, ¶ 10, 177 Vt. 513, 861 A.2d 1060 (mem.). Similarly, in Burgess, we concluded that where a car was idling in a lawful pull-off by the side of the road, with no indication that the car was disabled or anyone was ill or otherwise in distress, police could not seize the individuals in the car on the basis of a community caretaking rationale. 163 Vt. at 262, 657 A.2d at 203–04. In the absence of any specific indicia of distress, and given that the cars in these cases were safely and lawfully parked in places designated for such parking, and at times and locations that did not suggest distress, law enforcement's concern for the well-being of the occupants was not sufficient to justify the intrusion of a seizure.

¶ 13. On balance, we conclude that the objective facts here did not provide sufficient grounds to believe that defendant was in distress to warrant the trooper's seizure. As the trial court noted, defendant's car was stopped with its engine running on the shoulder of a back-country road, where it posed no danger to oncoming traffic. Defendant had not been driving erratically or breaking any traffic laws. The court explicitly stated that “[i]f those were the only relevant facts in this case, [the] Court would grant the defendant's [motion].”

¶ 14. Nevertheless, the trial court relied on other facts, including the fact that the officer had been following the car when defendant pulled over, and that defendant did not get out of the car, make a call, or undertake any other actions after pulling over. Given these circumstances, the court held that a police officer could reasonably suspect that defendant “might be suffering a heart attack or other serious problem, causing him to stop unexpectedly in a remote location.” Under...