State v. Jordan

• Decision Date: 06 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. A06-1445.,A06-1445.
• Citation: 742 N.W.2d 149
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Robert Joseph JORDAN, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

742 N.W.2d 149

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Robert Joseph JORDAN, Appellant.

No. A06-1445.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

December 6, 2007.

Lori Swanson, Minnesota Attorney General, Saint Paul, MN, James P. Ratz, Aitkin County Attorney, Thomas J. Nolan, Jr., Assistant Aitkin County Attorney, Aitkin, MN, for Respondent.

Mark D. Nyvold, Special Assistant Public Defender, Saint Paul, MN, for Appellant.

Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc.

OPINION

HANSON, Justice.

This is a pretrial appeal from an order granting appellant Robert Joseph Jordan's motion to suppress evidence obtained from a nighttime search of his home. Jordan and his wife were not present at the time of the search but Jordan's pregnant daughter, her boyfriend, and a third individual were present and each was in bed. Based on evidence obtained during the search of his home, Jordan was charged with one count of third-degree possession of a controlled substance. The district court concluded that the warrant application lacked sufficient facts to justify a nighttime entry and the circumstances present at the time of entry resulted in a constitutional violation, requiring suppression of all evidence seized during the search. The court of appeals reversed, holding that, because Jordan was not present in the home at the time of the search, the violation was statutory, not constitutional, and suppression was not required. State v. Jordan, 726 N.W.2d 534, 541 (Minn.App.2007) rev. granted (Minn. Apr. 17, 2007). We reverse and reinstate the suppression order.

On December 11, 2004, at approximately 4:30 a.m., deputy sheriffs presented an application to a district court judge for a warrant to search Jordan's residence during the nighttime or daytime hours, and without having to knock and announce their presence. The judge found probable cause for the warrant application and also authorized a nighttime search outside the hours of 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., but did not authorize an unannounced entry. The state concedes that the application for the search warrant did not contain a sufficiently particularized reason to justify a nighttime entry.¹

At approximately 6 a.m. the deputies executed the warrant. As the deputies approached Jordan's residence they observed that there were no lights on inside the residence but there were several vehicles in the yard. The deputies knocked on the front door and, hearing nothing from the inside, entered the residence and announced themselves.² Inside the residence, the deputies observed one male sleeping on a sofa, and a female and male sleeping in a bed in a back bedroom. All three individuals were dressed in nightclothes. The female was Jordan's 20-year-old pregnant daughter, and the male sleeping with her was her boyfriend. According to the deputies' reports, Jordan's daughter and her boyfriend regularly resided in Jordan's home. The third individual apparently was a social guest, staying only for the night.

The deputies kicked open Jordan's locked bedroom door and found: $900 in cash; two surveillance cameras; two active police scanners; an active driveway alarm; a polished blue rock with cuts and marks from a razor or knife with white residue, which tested positive for methamphetamine; a digital scale; a spoon with crystal-like residue; two baggies containing a crystal-like substance, one of which tested positive for methamphetamine; empty baggies; a coffee grinder with white powdery residue, which tested positive for Ephedrine; and a box of Suphedrine cold pills.

The district court found that the search warrant had sufficient probable cause, but that the nighttime search authorization was not supported because the application did not provide "sufficiently particularized reason to justify a nighttime entry." The court suppressed the seized evidence because "the circumstances present when the warrant was executed constituted a violation of a constitutional nature." The district court said: "the place searched was defendant's home and even though he was not present, the application of the exclusionary rule should be no different than it would if he had been there given the circumstances present in this case."

The court of appeals reversed, reasoning that because Jordan was not present when the search took place, policy concerns about individuals "`being roused out of bed and forced to stand by in their night clothes while the police conduct a search,'" were not triggered as to Jordan. Jordan, 726 N.W.2d at 539 (quoting State v. Lien, 265 N.W.2d 833, 841 (Minn.1978)). The court of appeals concluded that "the execution of the invalid nighttime search warrant at respondent's home when he was not present amounted to a statutory violation rather than a violation of respondent's constitutional rights," and, as such, the district court erred in suppressing the evidence. Id. at 541. We granted review.

When reviewing pretrial orders on motions to suppress evidence, we review the district court's factual findings under a clearly erroneous standard and the district court's legal determinations de novo. State v. Bourke, 718 N.W.2d 922, 927 (Minn.2006). Our review is informed by our decision in State v. Jackson, 742 N.W.2d 163, No. A05-247, 2007 WL 4261169 (Minn. Dec. 6, 2007), issued contemporaneously with this opinion. In Jackson, we held that police entry into the defendant's home on December 11 at 9:25 p.m. to execute a search warrant with an invalid nighttime authorization, and with no knowledge that defendant had not yet entered a period of nighttime repose, required that the evidence seized in the search be suppressed, both because the entry subverted the basic purpose of the statute regulating nighttime searches and the entry violated the defendant's rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the United States and Minnesota Constitutions. Jackson, 742 N.W.2d at 174-75, 177-78, 179-80. The added feature to consider in Jordan's case, not present in Jackson, is whether Jordan's absence from the home during the search reduces the statutory or constitutional protections.

I.

Jordan argues that deputies violated the statute that restricts the service of a search warrant during nighttime hours. That statute provides:

A search warrant may be served only between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. unless the court determines on the basis of facts stated in the affidavits that a nighttime search outside those hours is necessary to prevent the loss, destruction, or removal of the objects of the search or to protect the searchers or the public. The search warrant shall state that it may be served only between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. unless a nighttime search outside those hours is authorized.

Minn.Stat. § 626.14 (2006).³ The state concedes that the statute was violated because the application for the warrant was insufficient to support a nighttime search. But the state argues, and the court of appeals agreed, that a violation of the statute does not require suppression. As we noted in Jackson, the test for whether suppression is required is whether the violation of the statute was a serious one that subverted the purpose of the statute. 742 N.W.2d at 168 (citing State v. Cook, 498 N.W.2d 17, 20 (Minn.1993)).

Applying our decision in Jackson, we note that the deputies entered Jordan's home during the period defined by statute as being nighttime and the deputies did not know whether Jordan or any other occupants of the home were sleeping, were engaged in particularly personal behavior which they were attempting to keep private, or were in their nightclothes. In fact, three occupants of the home — two residents and one social guest — were sleeping and were roused out in their nightclothes for the search. And there is evidence that the door by which police gained entry to the home was locked. Clearly, the door to Jordan's bedroom, which contained the challenged evidence, was locked.

As in Jackson, the deputies entered Jordan's home without any information about what was going on inside the home. They did not know whether Jordan was present and sleeping, whether Jordan was engaging in personal behavior he intended to keep private, or whether he was in his nightclothes. But, unlike Jackson, it turns out that Jordan was not present. This raises the question of whether the statute was intended to protect the interest of a homeowner in the security of his home even when the homeowner is not present. Stated another way, is the purpose of the statute only to protect a homeowner from intrusion on his person or is it broader, to protect a homeowner's interest in maintaining a secure home, whether he is personally present or not?

We conclude that the purpose of the statute is to protect the broader interest of a homeowner in the security of his home, whether he is present or not. First, the statute does not mention the presence of the homeowner as a condition to the prohibition against an unauthorized nighttime search. If the legislature had intended to protect only the person of the homeowner, it could have said so more specifically. Second, one of the purposes of the statute is to regulate the conduct of police, "to prevent police intrusion into the personal and private activities of individuals in their homes at night unless the police articulate facts sufficient to support their intrusion." Jackson, 742 N.W.2d 163, 173. That purpose is served by prohibiting an unauthorized nighttime search, whether the homeowner is present or not.

Under Jackson, the critical inquiry is what the officers know at the time of entry. Id. at 173. If, as in State v. Lien, they know that they will not be intruding on a homeowner's period of repose, the evidence they obtain in an unauthorized nighttime search may be admissible. 265 N.W.2d 833 (Minn.1978). But, if they do not know whether they will be intruding on a homeowner's period of repose, the evidence should be suppressed. Here, in fact, the deputies...