State v. Ketchum

• Decision Date: 09 November 2001
• Docket Number: No. 23745.,23745.
• Citation: 34 P.3d 1006,97 Haw. 107
• Parties: STATE of Hawai`i, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Burt T. KETCHUM, Defendant-Appellee, and Donna Mae Wright, Defendant.
• Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

34 P.3d 1006

97 Haw. 107

STATE of Hawai`i, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Burt T. KETCHUM, Defendant-Appellee, and Donna Mae Wright, Defendant.

No. 23745.

Supreme Court of Hawai`i.

November 9, 2001.

As Amended November 20, 2001.

Mangmang Qiu Brown, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, on the briefs, for the plaintiff-appellant State of Hawai`i.

Glenn D. Choy, on the briefs, for the defendant-appellee Burt T. Ketchum.

MOON, C.J., LEVINSON, NAKAYAMA, JJ.

Opinion of the Court by LEVINSON, J.

The plaintiff-appellant State of Hawai`i [hereinafter, the "prosecution"] appeals from the findings of fact (FOFs), conclusions of law (COLs), and order of the first circuit court, the Honorable Russell Blair presiding, granting the defendant-appellee Burt T. Ketchum's motion to suppress. On appeal, the prosecution asserts that the circuit court erred in suppressing Ketchum's responses, on three separate occasions, to Honolulu Police Department (HPD) officers' questions regarding his residential address; in each instance, he indicated that his address was 91-467B Fort Weaver Road. Specifically, the prosecution contends that COL Nos. 5 through 9¹ are wrong and, therefore, that the circuit court erroneously concluded that the officers had subjected Ketchum to "custodial interrogation," on two of the occasions, without first informing him, inter alia, of his constitutional right against self-incrimination and, on the third occasion, in disregard of Ketchum's invocation of his constitutional right to remain silent. We disagree and, accordingly, affirm the circuit court's order granting Ketchum's motion to suppress.

I. BACKGROUND

At approximately 7:00 a.m. on January 26, 2000, a team of law enforcement officers from three different HPD divisions executed a search warrant upon a residence located at 91-467B Fort Weaver Road.² The team included approximately forty "Specialized Services Division" (SSD) officers, between twelve and fifteen "Narcotics-Vice Division" (NVD) officers, and approximately eight officers from the "Crime Reduction Unit" (CRU). Prior to executing the warrant, the officers were briefed; the SSD officers, in particular, were informed that they would be "raid[ing]" a residence and that the object of the raid was to find drug contraband.

SSD Officer Alan Masaki's assignment, as a member of the SSD "entry team,"³ was to enter the residence and "secure" the occupants. The entry team knocked on the residence's front door, announced their office and purpose, and, receiving no response from anyone within, forced open the front door. Of the nine members of the "entry team" who initially entered the residence, Officer Masaki was "in position number four." Officer Masaki testified at the suppression hearing that he was the first officer to enter the master bedroom [hereinafter, "Bedroom 1"], in which he "located" Ketchum and codefendant Donna Mae Wright "on the bed."⁴ He "secured" Ketchum and Wright and, although Ketchum was not immediately handcuffed, Officer Masaki acknowledged at the suppression hearing that Ketchum, nonetheless, was "detained" and "not free to leave."

"[A]bout a minute or so" after entering the bedroom, Officer Masaki asked Ketchum for his "personal information," including his residential address;⁵ Ketchum replied in relevant part that he resided at 91-467B Fort Weaver Road. Ketchum was not handcuffed at the time Officer Masaki requested his address. As noted supra in note 4, it appears, however, that Officer Masaki, before asking Ketchum for his personal information, had ordered Ketchum and Wright to "show [him] their hands," an order they both "complied [with] without incident." Officer Masaki did not "advise [Ketchum] of his constitutional rights" before questioning Ketchum, and the record contains no indication that he did so at any point during their encounter.

According to Officer Masaki, his purpose in asking Ketchum to provide his address was to include it in a "follow-up report to identify the occupant that I located."⁶ At the suppression hearing, Officer Masaki asserted that obtaining such personal information was "normal procedure" and that, while the personal information he obtained from Ketchum was also obtained for "booking purposes" at the time an arrestee is formally "booked," he did not obtain Ketchum's address for booking purposes.

Officer Masaki also testified that he was aware, due to his training as a police officer, that establishing Ketchum's address as the same as that where drug contraband was found would assist in prosecuting him for constructive possession of any drug contraband subsequently discovered in the residence. However, Officer Masaki denied questioning Ketchum "in any way about this particular investigation." Officer Masaki's encounter with Ketchum lasted only "a few minutes," which ended when he "turned [Ketchum and Wright] over," "without any incident," to the NVD officers.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the "entry team" had "secured" the other occupants of the residence. In a second bedroom [hereinafter, "Bedroom 2"], officers located two of Wright's teenage sons and her teenage daughter and, in the living room, Wright's third son, also a teenager. According to HPD Officer George Flores,⁷ who prepared an affidavit that the prosecution submitted to the circuit court in connection with the preliminary hearing conducted in this matter, "[e]veryone within the residence w[as] detained." Once the SSD officers gave an "all clear sign," the occupants were "turned over" to the NVD officers.⁸

Within approximately ten minutes of his encounter with Officer Masaki, Ketchum was photographed in Bedroom 1 and escorted, together with the other occupants of the residence, to a "central location"—in this case, the residence's garage. At some point during this time frame, an officer "flex handcuffed" Ketchum "with plastic ties."

NVD Detective Robert Towne's assignment was to "supervise the men assigned to do what we call the booking," which occurred in the garage. Detective Towne testified at the suppression hearing that, once the SSD entry team indicated that "all [is] clear," the occupants were photographed where they were found within the residence and then moved to the garage so that they could be "booked."⁹ He first encountered Ketchum, already "flex handcuffed," in the garage. At the suppression hearing, Detective Towne testified that, while he recalled assigning an officer the task of "booking" Ketchum in the garage, he did not specifically recall the officer's identity. Detective Towne acknowledged that, at the time Ketchum was in the garage, he was in "custody" and "not free to leave."

As for obtaining Ketchum's address as part of the "field booking" process, Detective Towne asserted that the information appearing on the "booking sheet"—a preprinted HPD form that, generally, an arresting officer completes by hand in the field and that contains an arrestee's "personal information," including his or her address—assisted in "identifying the person" and was helpful in the event that it became subsequently necessary to serve a summons upon or otherwise contact the arrestee. However, Detective Towne acknowledged that, as a result of his training as a police officer, he was aware of the concept of "constructive possession" and that, in this case, establishing Ketchum's address as that at which drug contraband was found would assist in prosecuting him. The record fails to reflect, inter alia, that an officer advised Ketchum of his right against self-incrimination at any time before or during the field booking process.

HPD Officer Michael Kaya¹⁰ first encountered Ketchum in the garage, at which time an officer handed him a "booking sheet" that contained the "pertinent information from the arrested individual," including Ketchum's residential address. Officer Kaya testified that Ketchum was, at the time he encountered him, "under arrest." Officer Kaya transported Ketchum to the Pearl City Police Station. Officer Kaya testified that the "booking sheet" is a form that officers use in the field at the time they arrest a suspect in order to facilitate the formal booking process that occurs later at the police station. He affirmed that the "booking sheet" is "used in all cases involving arrestees[.]"¹¹

Detective Towne confirmed that, in a raid such as that conducted in the present case, officers on the scene complete a "booking sheet" with regard to each arrestee. As a general matter, Detective Towne asserted that, when the police conduct a drug raid, anyone located within the building is not allowed to leave because they are "suspects" regarding either actual or constructive possession of drug contraband. Detective Towne further explained that, as a general practice, if an individual is located in a room in which drugs are subsequently found, then the individual is arrested "regardless if that's where he [or she] lives or not." However, if no incriminating evidence is discovered in the same room as a "visitor," then "we will release [the visitor] as soon as possible."¹² After supervising the field booking process in the garage, Detective Towne entered the residence and assisted other officers in searching Bedroom 1. In searching an "[a]rmoire" drawer, Detective Towne found various items of alleged drug paraphernalia, which were, together with other items that HPD Officer Donald Marumoto located in Bedroom 1 between approximately 7:10 a.m. and 7:40 a.m., the items that predicated Ketchum's prosecution in the present matter.¹³

NVD Detective Renold Itomura was the "case supervisor." His task was to "oversee the [execution of the] warrant, the booking process, ... the arrest, and the collection of evidence." Approximately thirteen hours after the raid, Detective Itomura sought to interview Ketchum, who had remained in custody since his arrest at the police station. Detective Itomura advised Ketchum, inter alia, of his constitutional rights to remain silent and to have an attorney...