State v. Hanning

• Decision Date: 20 October 2009
• Docket Number: No. E2006-02196-SC-R11-CD.,E2006-02196-SC-R11-CD.
• Citation: 296 S.W.3d 44
• Parties: STATE of Tennessee v. Jerry Lee HANNING.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

296 S.W.3d 44

STATE of Tennessee v. Jerry Lee HANNING.

No. E2006-02196-SC-R11-CD.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

May 27, 2009 Session Heard in Cookeville.¹

October 20, 2009.

Wade V. Davies, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jerry Lee Hanning.

Robert E. Cooper, Atty. Gen. and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Sol. Gen.; Gordon W. Smith, Associate Sol. Gen., for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

OPINION

SHARON G. LEE, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, C.J., CORNELIA A. CLARK, and WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JJ., joined. GARY R. WADE, J., filed a separate concurring opinion.

This appeal involves the detention and questioning of the driver of a truck tractor and trailer based upon an anonymous tip of reckless driving from a citizen. A police officer received a dispatch that a caller had reported a black "18-wheeler" bearing a "Smith Brothers" logo was being driven recklessly in a northbound direction on the interstate and had just exited at the Highway 72 ramp. The police officer was in a parking lot very close to the exit ramp at the time he received the call. He responded immediately and observed a black "semi-truck" parked in the emergency lane of the northbound exit ramp. The officer turned his blue lights on, drove down the ramp, and pulled in front of the truck. After observing a Smith Transport logo on the door of the truck tractor, questioning the driver, and administering field sobriety tests, the officer arrested the driver for driving under the influence. The driver entered a conditional guilty plea to driving under the influence and reserved the certified question of whether the warrantless detention and questioning of the driver violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee. We hold that in this case the anonymous tip reporting reckless driving indicated a sufficiently high risk of imminent injury or death to members of the public to warrant immediate intervention by law enforcement officials and justified the brief investigatory stop because the offense was reported at or near the time of its occurrence, and the report indicated that the caller was witnessing an ongoing offense; the report provided a detailed description of the truck, its direction of travel and location; and the investigating officer verified these details within moments of the dispatch reporting the tip.

Facts and Procedural Background

On November 15, 2003, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Sergeant Kent Russell of the Loudon Police Department received a radio dispatch that an anonymous caller had reported a recklessly driven truck headed north on Interstate 75. The caller identified the vehicle as a black "18-wheeler"² with "1-800-GoSmith" or "Go Smith Brothers" on the back and stated that the truck had exited at the Highway 72 exit ramp.

When Sergeant Russell received the dispatch, he was in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant located about one hundred and fifty yards from the top of the Highway 72 exit ramp. He immediately drove to the exit ramp where he observed a black truck tractor and trailer with its parking lights on parked in the emergency lane, facing the top of the ramp. Sergeant Russell activated his emergency blue lights, drove his patrol car down the ramp against the flow of traffic and parked with the front of his vehicle very close to the front of the truck. Sergeant Russell walked up to the truck's door, which was emblazoned with an eagle image and the words "Smith" and "transport," and requested the truck's driver, Jerry Lee Hanning, to step out of the truck. After Mr. Hanning complied with Sergeant Russell's request, Sergeant Russell asked him if he had been drinking, administered various field sobriety tests, arrested him for driving under the influence, and transported him to a hospital for a blood alcohol test.

In October of 2004, the Loudon County grand jury returned an indictment charging Mr. Hanning with driving under the influence ("DUI") in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401³ and with possession of an open container of an alcoholic beverage in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-416.⁴ Mr. Hanning filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of the detention of himself and his vehicle upon the ground that Sergeant Russell lacked reasonable suspicion or probable cause and therefore violated the search and seizure provisions of the state and federal constitutions. The trial court denied the motion to suppress.

After the denial of his motion to suppress, Mr. Hanning entered into a conditional plea agreement with the State. In exchange for a conditional plea of guilty to the DUI charge, the open container charge was dismissed, and he was sentenced to eleven months, twenty-nine days incarceration, suspended upon his service of three days in jail and payment of fines and costs. This plea reserved and certified for appeal the question presented in the motion to suppress of "whether the warrantless questioning and detention of Mr. Hanning violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee." This question was certified for appeal pursuant to Rule 37(b)(2) of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure⁵ by order of the trial court.

The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's denial of the motion to suppress and found that Sergeant Russell had reasonable suspicion that the truck was the same one that the caller had identified as being driven recklessly, based upon the facts that when Sergeant Russell received the dispatch he was in close proximity to the specified exit ramp, he immediately proceeded to the ramp, and found a black truck tractor and trailer sitting as if it had exited I-75, as stated by the caller. The Court of Criminal Appeals further found that, based upon Sergeant Russell's reasonable suspicion that Mr. Hanning had been driving recklessly, he properly questioned Mr. Hanning and administered field sobriety tests. Based on the results of these actions, the Court of Criminal Appeals also found that the officer had probable cause to arrest Mr. Hanning for driving under the influence. We granted Mr. Hanning's application for permission to appeal.

Analysis

As noted, the certified question reserved for appeal was "whether the warrantless questioning and detention of Mr. Hanning violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee." We determine that under the facts of this case, the warrantless detention was valid because it was supported by reasonable suspicion that Mr. Hanning had committed a crime.

Although this case comes to us on appeal as a certified question of law under Tenn.R.Crim.P. 37(b)(2), we review it under the same standard as an appeal from a judgment denying a motion to suppress. See State v. Nicholson, 188 S.W.3d 649, 656 (Tenn.2006). The "trial court's findings of fact in a suppression hearing will be upheld unless the evidence preponderates otherwise." State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d 18, 23 (Tenn. 1996). Furthermore, although "[t]he party prevailing in the trial court is entitled to the strongest legitimate view of the evidence adduced at the suppression hearing as well as all reasonable and legitimate inferences that may be drawn from that evidence," id., the burden remains on the State to prove that a warrantless search was constitutionally permissible. Nicholson, 188 S.W.3d at 656-57; State v. Henning, 975 S.W.2d 290, 298 (Tenn.1998). We review questions of law de novo. State v. Day, 263 S.W.3d 891, 900 (Tenn.2008).

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment as recognized in Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 650, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), provides:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Similarly, Article I, Section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution provides:

That the people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions, from unreasonable searches and seizures; and that general warrants, whereby an officer may be commanded to search suspected places, without evidence of the fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, whose offences are not particularly described and supported by evidence, are dangerous to liberty and ought not to be granted.

Three categories of police-citizen interaction have been judicially designated: (1) full-scale arrest, which must be supported by probable cause, see Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 598, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975); State v. Ferrante, 269 S.W.3d 908, 913 (Tenn.2008); (2) brief investigatory detention, which must be supported by reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, see Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); State v. Williams, 185 S.W.3d 311, 315 (Tenn.2006); and (3) brief police-citizen encounter that requires no objective justification, see Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 434, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991); State v. Daniel, 12 S.W.3d 420, 424 (Tenn.2000). The case before us involves a brief investigatory detention, and accordingly, we must determine whether at the time Mr. Hanning was detained, Sergeant Russell had a reasonable suspicion that Mr. Hanning had committed a crime.

We have previously noted that a seizure or detention occurs when "`in view of all of the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave.'" Williams, 185 S.W.3d at 316 (quoting ...