State v. Koivu
| Decision Date | 01 March 2012 |
| Docket Number | No. 38106.,38106. |
| Citation | 152 Idaho 511,272 P.3d 483 |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Randy Paul KOIVU, Defendant–Respondent. |
Elizabeth A. Koeckeritz, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, argued for the appellant.
Justin M. Curtis, Deputy State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, argued for the respondent.
This is an appeal asking that we overrule State v. Guzman, 122 Idaho 981, 842 P.2d 660 (1992), and hold that the Leon good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies to violations of Article I, section 17, of the Idaho Constitution. Because the State has not shown any ground for doing so, we decline to overrule that case and affirm the order of the district court suppressing evidence obtained incident to an arrest pursuant to a wrongly issued warrant.
Randy Koivu (Defendant) was charged with the crime of possession of methamphetamine in Boundary County. He was found guilty of that crime, and on January 6, 2004, the district court sentenced him to five years in the custody of the Idaho Board of Correction, with three years fixed and two years indeterminate. The court suspended that sentence and placed Defendant on probation for four years. The terms of probation included that Defendant pay a fine of $500.00, court costs of $88.50, public defender reimbursement of $300.00, and restitution of $100.00. Defendant later violated the terms of his probation, and on November 1, 2005, the court entered an order revoking his probation and committing him to the custody of the Idaho Board of Correction. Defendant was released from prison on July 2, 2009.
On October 1, 2009, a deputy court clerk in Boundary County filed an affidavit in the Boundary County case stating that Defendant had failed to pay a fine and court costs in the sum of $1,028.50. On December 1, 2009, the same deputy clerk filed another affidavit stating that Defendant had failed to comply with a court order requiring him to pay a fine and costs totaling $588.50 by July 6, 2006. On December 8, 2009, the district court issued a warrant of attachment in the Boundary County case to have Defendant seized and brought before the court to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt for his "failure to comply with that certain order of the Court, a copy of which is attached hereto." No copy of any order was attached to the warrant of attachment, but bail was set in the amount of $588.50, and the warrant further stated that the contempt would be purged and the defendant released upon Defendant posting cash in the amount of $588.50. Neither any law enforcement officer nor the prosecuting attorney had any involvement in generating the affidavits or issuing the warrant of attachment.
On March 5, 2010, two sheriff deputies in neighboring Bonner County lawfully stopped a car for speeding. Defendant was the driver of the car. In running a background check of Defendant, the officers were informed that there was a warrant for his arrest out of Boundary County. Reasonably relying upon the validity of the warrant, the deputies arrested Defendant and transported him to the Bonner County jail. Defendant was arrested only because of the warrant; he could not have been arrested for speeding. While searching Defendant at the jail, a baggie of methamphetamine was discovered near his feet.
On March 5, 2010, Defendant was charged in Bonner County with possession of methamphetamine. Defendant waived his right to a preliminary hearing, and on March 17, 2010, the prosecuting attorney filed an information charging Defendant with that crime. The prosecutor also alleged in the information that Defendant was a persistent violator, having had two prior felony convictions.
On April 8, 2010, the prosecuting attorney in Boundary County moved to dismiss the warrant of attachment pursuant to which Defendant had been arrested. On May 4, 2010, the district court entered an order dismissing it on the ground that "the Court lacked jurisdiction to issue the warrant on December 8, 2009." The lack of jurisdiction was apparently based upon the fact that the district court had not sentenced Defendant to a fine of $500.00 and court costs of $88.50, but had only ordered him to pay such sums as a condition of probation. Upon the revocation of his probation, Defendant was no longer required to pay them. As a result, the district court in the Bonner County case issued an order suppressing the methamphetamine. The State then timely appealed.
"[S]ubject matter jurisdiction is an issue that this Court may raise sua sponte at any time." Johnson v. Blaine County, 146 Idaho 916, 924, 204 P.3d 1127, 1135 (2009). Pursuant to Idaho Appellate Rule 11(c)(7), an appeal may be taken as a matter of right from "[a]n order granting a motion to suppress evidence." In this case, Defendant never formally made a motion to suppress any evidence.
The court minutes in the Bonner County case reflect that at Defendant's arraignment his counsel stated she would file a motion to suppress if the district court in the Boundary County case granted the prosecutor's motion to dismiss the warrant of attachment. After the court did so, defense counsel in the Bonner County case filed a brief in support of a motion to suppress in which she argued that under State v. Guzman, 122 Idaho 981, 842 P.2d 660 (1992), "[t]he Leon ‘good faith exception’ to the exclusionary rule is not applicable to the Idaho Constitution." The Bonner County deputy prosecutor responded by filing a brief in response "to Defendant's Motion to Suppress" in which he argued that Guzman should be overruled. The deputy prosecutor also filed a stipulation of facts signed by both parties, which recited that it was "for the purposes of the Defendants' Motions to Suppress." The parties then filed a written waiver of oral argument "on Defendant's Motion to Suppress." On September 1, 2010, the district court entered its decision addressing the State's criticisms of Guzman and concluding that "Defendant's Motion to Suppress is hereby GRANTED." However, the Defendant had not ever filed a motion to suppress. In addition, Defendant's brief did not identify the evidence he wanted suppressed; the State's response simply stated that "the defendant has moved to suppress this matter," without identifying what "this matter" was; and the court granted the Defendant's motion without identifying what evidence it had ordered suppressed. From the facts set forth in the stipulation, it is apparent that the evidence at issue is the methamphetamine found in connection with Defendant's arrest and processing at the jail. That is the only evidence mentioned. Since the parties and the court proceeded as if a motion to suppress had been made, albeit maybe implicitly, and the court granted that motion, we hold that the State had the right to appeal pursuant to Idaho Appellate Rule 11(c)(7).
Article I, section 17, of the Idaho Constitution 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 warrant shall issue without probable cause shown by affidavit, particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or thing to be seized." The Idaho Constitution does not specify the remedy for a violation of this provision, nor does the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.1
In Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914), the United States Supreme Court held for the first time that evidence wrongfully seized by the federal government in violation of a criminal defendant's Fourth Amendment rights could not be used as evidence in the ensuing criminal prosecution. The Court stated that if evidence seized in violation of a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights could be used against him in a criminal prosecution, the protection of the Fourth Amendment would be of no value and it might as well be stricken from the Constitution.
If letters and private documents can thus be seized and held and used in evidence against a citizen accused of an offense, the protection of the 4th Amendment, declaring his right to be secure against such searches and seizures, is of no value, and, so far as those thus placed are concerned, might as well be stricken from the Constitution. The efforts of the courts and their officials to bring the guilty to punishment, praiseworthy as they are, are not to be aided by the sacrifice of those great principles established be years of endeavor and suffering which have resulted in their embodiment in the fundamental law of the land.
Id. at 393, 34 S.Ct. at 344, 58 L.Ed. at 655–56. However, the Court held that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to searches and seizures by city police because "[i]ts limitations reach the Federal government and its agencies." Id. at 398, 34 S.Ct. at 346, 58 L.Ed. at 657–58.
Three and one-half decades later, the Court decided that the Fourth Amendment should apply to the States, and it used the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as the vehicle for doing so. Wolf v. People of the State of Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, 27–28, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 1361–62, 93 L.Ed. 1782, 1785–86 (1949). However, the Wolf Court left to the individual States the right to decide whether exclusion of evidence or some other remedy should apply to Fourth Amendment violations. Id. at 31, 69 S.Ct. at 1362–63, 93 L.Ed. at 1787–88. Thus, the Court held "that in a prosecution in a State court for a State crime the Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid the admission of evidence obtained by an unreasonable search and seizure." Id. at 33, 69 S.Ct. at 1364, 93 L.Ed. at 1788. Under Wolf, the Fourth Amendment did not require any particular remedy for its violation. The Court stated that the exclusionary rule announced in Weeks ...
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