State v. Contreras

• Decision Date: 12 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. 23,394.,23,394.
• Citation: 79 P.3d 1111,134 N.M. 503
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Manuel CONTRERAS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

79 P.3d 1111

134 N.M. 503

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Manuel CONTRERAS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 23,394.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

September 12, 2003.

Certiorari Denied November 3, 2003.

Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, Santa Fe, NM, Joel Jacobsen, Assistant Attorney General, Albuquerque, NM, for Appellant.

John B. Bigelow, Chief Public Defender, Kathleen T. Baldridge, Assistant Appellate Defender, Santa Fe, NM, for Appellee.

Certiorari Denied, No. 28,301, November 3, 2003.

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

{1} The State appeals the trial court's order suppressing evidence obtained following a traffic stop of Defendant. The stop was initiated pursuant to an anonymous tip from a concerned motorist who observed erratic driving. We discuss whether an anonymous tip can provide sufficient information for a police officer to form a reasonable suspicion in order to make a brief investigatory stop to confirm or dispel a suspicion of drunk driving. We hold that, under the facts of this case, the deputy responding to the dispatch had reasonable suspicion to make the stop. We reverse the trial court's order suppressing the evidence.

FACTS

{2} Pursuant to an anonymous call, police stopped and subsequently arrested Defendant, charging him with aggravated DWI. The caller, described as a concerned motorist who called 911, informed the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority of a possible drunk driver who was driving a grey van, towing a red Geo, and driving erratically. Dispatch passed this information to two deputies on patrol, who found the vehicle and initiated a traffic stop. Neither deputy observed erratic driving before Deputy Reyes stopped the vehicle. After stopping Defendant, Deputy Reyes noted signs of alcohol intoxication, including bloodshot, watery eyes and an odor of alcohol on Defendant's breath. Defendant failed standardized field sobriety tests and was taken to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office for a breath test, which Defendant refused to take, leading to the aggravated DWI charge.

{3} Defendant moved to suppress all evidence obtained from this stop, arguing that the traffic stop constituted an illegal seizure, violative of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, because the deputies observed no suspicious or criminal behavior prior to the stop. The trial court denied the motion, citing as authority State ex rel. Taxation and Revenue Department Motor Vehicle Division v. Van Ruiten, 107 N.M. 536, 760 P.2d 1302 (Ct.App.1988). Defendant again moved to suppress the evidence, submitting new case law to the trial court and arguing that the United States Supreme Court's recent decision in Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000), controlled in this case. The trial court then granted Defendant's motion to suppress, reasoning that, according to the standard articulated in J.L., the anonymous tip "provided no predictive information with which the officer could test knowledge or credibility." The State appeals from this order.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

{4} On appeal from a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress, we determine whether the law was correctly applied to the facts. State v. Cline, 1998-NMCA-154, ¶ 6, 126 N.M. 77, 966 P.2d 785. Such a mixed question of law and facts is reviewed de novo. State v. Attaway, 117 N.M. 141, 145-46, 870 P.2d 103, 107-08 (1994). Because the facts in this case are not in dispute, we review only the legal conclusions of the trial court.

DISCUSSION

{5} A brief detention for investigatory purposes is a seizure entitled to Fourth Amendment protections. Brown v. Tex., 443 U.S. 47, 50, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979). The Fourth Amendment requires that all seizures be reasonable. Id. "A police officer may, in appropriate circumstances approach a person for purposes of investigating possible criminal behavior even though there is no probable cause to make an arrest." Van Ruiten, 107 N.M. at 538, 760 P.2d at 1304; see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). The officer, looking at the totality of the circumstances, must be able to form a reasonable suspicion that the individual in question is engaged in or is about to be engaged in criminal activity. State v. Urioste, 2002-NMSC-023, ¶ 10, 132 N.M. 592, 52 P.3d 964. "Reasonable suspicion must be based on specific articulable facts and the rational inferences that may be drawn from those facts." State v. Flores, 1996-NMCA-059, ¶ 7, 122 N.M. 84, 920 P.2d 1038. Reasonable suspicion is dependant on both the content of information possessed by the police and its degree of reliability. Ala. v. White, 496 U.S. 325, 330, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301 (1990). An anonymous tip, seldom reliable on its own, must be suitably corroborated or exhibit sufficient indicia of reliability to provide the police reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop. J.L., 529 U.S. at 270, 120 S.Ct. 1375; see Urioste, 2002-NMSC-023, ¶¶ 11-13, 132 N.M. 592, 52 P.3d 964 (discussing White and J.L. as containing the standards used to determine whether an anonymous tip can provide reasonable suspicion for an investigative stop). Because the facts surrounding the anonymous tip and investigatory stop are viewed in light of the totality of the circumstances, a deficiency in one consideration can be compensated for by the strength in another consideration or by some indicia of reliability. See United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273-74, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002) (cautioning appellate courts from considering factors in isolation of each other when using a totality of the circumstances approach in analyzing reasonable suspicion); White, 496 U.S. at 330-31, 110 S.Ct. 2412 (affirming that the totality of circumstances approach in determining reasonableness means giving the facts the weight they deserve).

{6} Defendant argued below that his motion to suppress was governed by J.L. because Deputy Reyes was acting on an anonymous tip that was completely uncorroborated by the police. J.L. concerned an anonymous tip about a young man carrying a concealed weapon. 529 U.S. at 268,120 S.Ct. 1375. The Supreme Court made it clear that, under the facts of that case, an anonymous tip must have some predictive information with which the police can verify the informant's knowledge or credibility. Id. at 271, 120 S.Ct. 1375. In J.L. the Supreme Court held that information about the Defendant's race and clothing, combined with his location (standing at a bus stop), did not give any indication of how the tipster knew of concealed criminal activity. Id. at 272, 120 S.Ct. 1375. However, the Supreme Court acknowledged that there may be circumstances in which the danger alleged in an anonymous tip might be so great as to justify a search without a specific showing of reliability:

We do not say, for example, that a report of a person carrying a bomb need bear the indicia of reliability we demand for a report of a person carrying a firearm before the police can constitutionally conduct a frisk. Nor do we hold that public safety officials in quarters where the reasonable expectation of Fourth Amendment privacy is diminished ... cannot conduct protective searches on the basis of information insufficient to justify searches elsewhere.

Id. at 273-74, 120 S.Ct. 1375 (internal citations omitted). We note, too, that exigency is the underlying reason that the Supreme Court approved of limited investigatory stops based on reasonable suspicion in Terry. See United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 228-29, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985) (discussing the propriety of an investigative stop after a crime has been completed and noting that exigent circumstances, such as were the case in Terry, are more persuasive when the police step in before a crime is committed or completed).

{7} In the case at bar, we must determine if the anonymous tip, received by the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority and passed on to the deputies, contained sufficient information and was sufficiently reliable to provide the deputies with reasonable suspicion that a crime was being or was about to be committed, or if the possible danger to public safety was sufficient for the deputies to conduct the investigatory stop. We analyze each criterion separately, but reach our conclusion based on the totality of circumstances, recognizing that, under a totality of circumstances analysis, no one criterion is dispositive of the ultimate conclusion. See White, 496 U.S. at 330, 110 S.Ct. 2412 (stating that the totality of circumstances is "the whole picture," requiring that all factors must be taken into account when evaluating whether there is reasonable suspicion).

{8} The gist of the State's argument is that New Mexico law presumes that concerned citizen-informants are reliable, that public safety concerns can constitute reasonable suspicion, and that traffic stops are the least intrusive form of seizures, tipping the balance between public safety and private intrusion in favor of the stop. Defendant argues that the anonymous tip was not reliable and not corroborated by the deputies, making the stop unreasonable and violative of the Fourth Amendment.

The Tip Contained Sufficient Information to Identify the Suspect Vehicle

{9} Though the record contains few facts, Deputy Reyes received information "a grey van towing a red Geo" that was sufficient for him to easily find the vehicle that was the subject of the dispatch. Defendant makes no argument that too much time had elapsed between the dispatch and the stop or that the deputies did not receive sufficient information as to the vehicle's location in order to quickly and easily find the vehicle and make the stop to investigate. Similarly, Defendant does not argue that the vehicle's description was too general. This was, after all, a tip about a grey van towing a red Geo, not a tip about a beige Toyota or a dark-colored pickup truck. Several jurisdictions...