State v. Frazier

• Citation: 558 S.W.3d 145
• Decision Date: 26 September 2018
• Docket Number: No. M2016-02134-SC-R11-CD,M2016-02134-SC-R11-CD
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Charlotte Lynn FRAZIER and Andrea Parks
• Court: Supreme Court of Tennessee

558 S.W.3d 145

STATE of Tennessee

v.Charlotte Lynn FRAZIER and Andrea Parks

No. M2016-02134-SC-R11-CD

Supreme Court of Tennessee, AT NASHVILLE.

May 31, 2018 Session

FILED September 26, 2018

Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General and Reporter, Andrée S. Blumstein, Solicitor General, M. Todd Ridley, Assistant Attorney General, and David W. Wyatt, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

Leonard G. Belmares II, Dickson, Tennessee, for the appellee Charlotte Lynn Frazier.

Tammy L. Hassell, Charlotte, Tennessee, for the appellee Andrea Parks.

Cornelia A. Clark, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Jeffrey S. Bivins, C.J., and Sharon G. Lee, Holly Kirby, and Roger A. Page, JJ., joined.

Cornelia A. Clark, J.

The question in this appeal is whether the courts below erred by holding that evidence seized from the defendants' residences in the 19th Judicial District of Tennessee should be suppressed because the warrants were signed by a Circuit Court Judge of the 23rd Judicial District of Tennessee. We hold that, in the absence of interchange, designation, appointment, or other lawful means, a circuit court judge in Tennessee lacks jurisdiction to issue search warrants for property located outside the judge’s statutorily assigned judicial district. Nothing in the record on appeal establishes that the 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge obtained jurisdiction to issue search warrants for property in the 19th Judicial District by interchange, designation, appointment, or other lawful means. As a result, the courts below correctly held that the 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge lacked authority to issue the search warrants, and that, as a result, the searches were constitutionally invalid. Furthermore, although the issue was not raised in the trial court, in the exercise of our supervisory authority, we have considered the State’s argument that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies in these circumstances and conclude that it does not. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals, which upheld the trial court’s order granting the defendants' motions to suppress.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

The relevant facts are undisputed. In September 2014, various law enforcement agencies, including the Tennessee Drug Task Forces of the 23rd and 19th Judicial Districts, began a collaborative investigation of a suspected conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine throughout Middle Tennessee.¹ As part of this investigation, a Circuit Court Judge of the 23rd Judicial District, which is comprised of Cheatham, Dickson, Houston, Humphreys, and Stewart Counties,² issued multiple wiretap orders from July to October 2015. These orders authorized the interception of audio and text message communications for multiple phone numbers, including a phone number of one of the defendants to this appeal.³

In late October 2015, relying in part on information obtained from the wiretaps, agents of the 23rd Judicial District Drug Task Force applied for warrants to search the residences of the defendants, Charlotte Frazier and Andrea Parks. Ms. Frazier’s residence was located in Montgomery County, and Ms. Parks' residence was located in Robertson County. Although Montgomery and Robertson Counties are located in the 19th Judicial District,⁴ the agents submitted the search warrant applications to the same 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge who had issued the wiretap orders because of his familiarity with the investigation. The 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge issued the warrants for the defendants' residences.

During the ensuing search of Ms. Parks' home, the police seized 17.9 ounces (507 grams) of methamphetamine, 20 grams of marijuana, and marijuana paraphernalia.

During the search of Ms. Frazier’s home, the police seized "approximately [1] kilogram of crystal methamphetamine, $112,031.00 in U.S. Currency, approximately 100 ecstasy pills, [2] sheets of LSD, [2] ounces [ (57 grams) ] of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, digital scales, several cellular telephones, and assorted rounds of ammunition." From a vehicle parked outside Ms. Frazier’s residence, the police also seized "[8] ounces (227 grams) of crystal methamphetamine, $38,838.00 in U.S. Currency, a loaded Glock handgun[,] and a Remington 12 gauge shotgun."

Later, on February 17, 2016, the defendants, and nearly 100 other people, were charged via presentment in Dickson County, part of the 23rd Judicial District, with one count of conspiracy to distribute 300 grams or more of methamphetamine, a Class A felony. See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-17-408(d)(2) (2018), 39-17-417(a), (j)(10) (2018). The defendants thereafter filed separate motions to suppress the evidence seized from their residences pursuant to the warrants. They challenged the constitutional validity of the warrants by arguing that the Circuit Court Judge for the 23rd Judicial District lacked jurisdiction to issue the search warrants because their residences were located outside his statutorily defined judicial district.⁵ The defendants relied on Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(a), which authorizes "[a] magistrate with jurisdiction in the county where the property sought is located [to] issue a search warrant." Tenn. R. Crim. P. 41(a) (emphasis added). Additionally, the defendants relied on state statutes defining and circumscribing the geographical jurisdiction of circuit court judges to statutorily defined judicial districts and asserted that a circuit court judge has no authority outside the judge’s statutorily defined judicial district in the absence of interchange, designation, appointment, or some other lawful means. Because the 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge had not obtained authority to act in the 19th Judicial District by any of these means, the defendants argued that the warrants were invalid, that the searches of their residences violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution, and that the evidence should be suppressed. The State opposed the defendants' motions to suppress, arguing based on another statute, that when issuing search warrants as "magistrates," circuit court judges in Tennessee have jurisdiction "throughout the state" and may issue search warrants for property located outside their assigned judicial districts. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-1-106 (2018).

A retired circuit court judge of the 23rd Judicial District was designated to adjudicate the defendants' motions to suppress. Separate hearings were held, but the parties presented no proof at either hearing because the motions presented the same question of law, and the relevant facts were undisputed. On September 13, 2016, the trial court entered separate orders granting the motions to suppress. Relying on "the plain language of Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(a)," the trial court ruled that a circuit court judge lacks jurisdiction to issue search warrants for property located outside the judge’s statutorily defined judicial district in the absence of interchange, designation, appointment, or some other lawful means of obtaining jurisdiction in another judicial district. Because none of these means had been used to confer authority on the 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge to issue search warrants for the defendants' residences in the 19th Judicial District, the trial court declared the search warrants constitutionally invalid and granted the defendants' motions to suppress.⁶ The trial court denied as premature the defendants' request to dismiss the charges.

Subsequently, the trial judge granted the State’s request for permission to seek interlocutory appeals in both cases, pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 9, on the single issue of whether a circuit court judge has authority when acting as a magistrate to issue search warrants for property located outside the circuit court judge’s statutorily assigned judicial district. The Court of Criminal Appeals granted the State’s applications for interlocutory appeals, consolidated the appeals, and affirmed the trial court’s orders granting the defendants' motions to suppress. State v. Frazier, No. M2016-02134-CCA-R9-CD, 2017 WL 4251118 at *8 (Tenn. Crim. App. Sept. 25, 2017), perm. app. granted (Tenn. Feb. 14, 2018). In addition to the single issue identified in the State’s application for interlocutory appeal, the intermediate appellate court also addressed the State’s argument, raised for the first time on appeal, that the evidence should not be suppressed, even if the 23rd Judicial District Circuit Court Judge lacked authority to issue the warrants, because either the statutory good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule⁷ or the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule that this Court adopted after the defendants' suppression hearings⁸ applies in this case. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that neither good-faith exception applies in these circumstances.

The State then filed an application for permission to appeal in this Court pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 11, raising two issues: (1) whether Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 and Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-1-106 authorize a circuit court judge to issue search warrants for property located outside of the judge’s assigned judicial district; and (2) if the search warrants were obtained in error, whether the violation is subject to Tennessee’s good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. We granted the State’s application.

II. Standards of Review

While this is an appeal from the trial court’s decision granting the defendants' motions to suppress, the relevant facts are undisputed, as the parties offered no proof at the suppression hearing. As a result, we address only legal issues in this appeal. We review these legal questions de novo, affording no presumption of correctness to the decisions of the...