State v. Lantzsch

• Decision Date: 15 July 2009
• Docket Number: A136096.,C070765CR.
• Citation: 229 Or. App. 505,214 P.3d 22
• Parties: STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Richard LANTZSCH, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Oregon Court of Appeals

214 P.3d 22

229 Or. App. 505

STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Richard LANTZSCH, Defendant-Appellant.

C070765CR.

A136096.

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Submitted on December 22, 2008.

Decided July 15, 2009.

Peter Gartlan, Chief Defender, and Mary Shannon Storey, Deputy Public Defender, Legal Services Division, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the brief for appellant.

Hardy Myers, Attorney General, Mary H. Williams, Solicitor General, and Anna M. Joyce, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent.

Before SERCOMBE, Presiding Judge, and BREWER, Chief Judge, and DEITS, Senior Judge.

BREWER, C.J.

Defendant appeals his conviction for unlawful possession of methamphetamine. He asserts that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress the evidence found as a result of a search, because his consent to the search was the unattenuated product of an unlawful seizure of his person. As explained below, we vacate and remand because the trial court did not make a finding of fact regarding whether defendant subjectively believed that he had been seized when the officer, who had completed his investigation and arrest of the driver of the car in which defendant was a passenger, contacted defendant and asked him to get out of the vehicle to speak with him. Whether defendant believed, and whether a reasonable person under the same circumstances could have believed, that his liberty was substantially interfered with, are essential components of our determination of whether his encounter with the police constituted a seizure. State v. Ashbaugh, 225 Or.App. 16, 200 P.3d 149 (2008), rev. allowed, 346 Or. 257, 210 P.3d 905 (2009). The absence of a finding of fact regarding defendant's subjective belief requires a remand to the trial court for further factfinding.

Defendant was a passenger in a car that a sheriff's deputy observed making an illegal turn at 12:35 a.m. The deputy initiated a traffic stop and asked the driver for her identification. The driver replied that she had no identification, but thought that her license was suspended. The deputy asked her to step out of the car and accompany him to the police cruiser. The driver complied. The deputy then began running a computer check to verify the driver's identity and whether her license was, in fact, suspended. During that time, which the deputy testified lasted "five or six minutes," defendant was left unattended in the passenger seat of the car. The deputy testified that defendant turned to look at the police cruiser several times during that period.

After completing the records check, the deputy arrested the driver on an outstanding warrant. He also searched her, finding a small packet of marijuana. The deputy placed the driver in the back of the police cruiser and then approached defendant, who was still seated in the passenger seat of the car. The deputy stood outside the car, with defendant still seated in the passenger's seat, and asked defendant to step out of the car and talk to him. The deputy did not tell defendant that he was free to go. The deputy testified that he did not order defendant to get out of the car but, rather, merely asked him to step out so they could talk. Defendant got out of the car and was asked to walk back to the rear of the car to meet the deputy. By this time, a second deputy had arrived to act as a cover officer and was standing behind the deputy who had first contacted defendant. As they reached the rear of the car, the deputy asked defendant whether he had any "weapons or contraband." The deputy testified that he asked defendant the question because

"[w]ell, the initial — the initial stop, a couple things I had noticed was the car had — still a bunch of backpacks and stuff in it, as well as the defendant and the [driver], they had sores on their face, which is typical of someone that's been using a controlled substance, such as methamphetamine, as well as after I had already contacted [the driver] and found marijuana on her, people that — not a really nice way to put it — people that use drugs tend to carry knives and weapons, not to mention most people — in my experience people that — if someone uses drugs, their friends are going to use drugs, as well."

Defendant told the deputy that he was carrying a pocketknife. The deputy asked defendant if he could "check" for the knife. The deputy testified that he wanted to search defendant because

"he's still got a weapon on him.

"* * * * *

"And I don't know as a police officer whether that weapon is going to be immediately a danger in two seconds from now or ten minutes from now."

The deputy searched defendant, and found a package of methamphetamine in defendant's pants pocket.

Defendant argued before the trial court that the deputy had substantially interfered with his liberty because "[the state is] saying that he was a witness, therefore they were going to question him, therefore he wouldn't feel free to leave because they believed he's a witness, and they wanted to stay there to talk to him." Defendant argued that the seizure was not supported by a reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime, because the deputy had testified that "they wanted him to stay because they wanted to figure out who [the driver] was." Defendant summed up his argument by asserting that:

"If [the officer's] purpose of the investigation was really to investigate a witness, as he testified, through his own testimony in [the officer's] mind [the defendant] wasn't really free to leave because he was a witness, so I'd argue that you could extrapolate from the officer's testimony that in his mind [defendant] wasn't free to leave, and therefore it's reasonable that there may have been some sort of instruction that [defendant] stay behind so that he could be questioned as a witness.

"* * * * *

"We have an officer who is — has the ability, I would argue he did have the ability to ask my client if he knew the codefendant and if he knew what her identity was, but he did not have the ability to ask if there were weapons or contraband and that —

"THE COURT: But isn't that the one thing that the statute says he can ask?

"[DEFENDANT]: The statute says that they can —

"THE COURT: That's 810.410(3)(d).

"[DEFENDANT]: Right, the 810.410(3) is actually mentioned in the [State v.] Thompkin[, 341 Or. 368, 143 P.3d 530 (2006),] case, and it says if they have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, they can question her regarding drugs, but there was no reasonable suspicion of that criminal activity in — there wasn't that reasonable suspicion * * * to allow [the officer] to ask that question, just as with the Thompkin case[.]

"* * * * *

"I think where this ends is that there was a stop and there was a request for search without reasonable suspicion that a crime could have been committed when that request was made and [defendant] disclosed a pocketknife."

The prosecutor replied that there had been no show of authority to suggest that defendant was not free to leave and that defendant could have left during the time he was sitting, unattended, in the car while the deputy was attempting to determine the driver's identity. Moreover, the prosecutor argued, the deputy lawfully approached defendant as part of the deputy's investigation into the driver's identity. The deputy's inquiry of defendant about weapons or contraband, according to the prosecutor, was justified by ORS 810.410, and, therefore, defendant's consent to a search of his person following his answer to the deputy's question was the result of a chain of lawful contacts, and not the result of an illegal seizure. Alternatively, the prosecutor argued that the deputy's question was justified on officer safety grounds because defendant had been left unattended in the car "where he was with lots of bags, and he was moving about, which caused concern to the officer in terms of possibly being able to have gotten a weapon." The prosecutor concluded by arguing that defendant could have, at any time during the encounter, chosen to walk away.

The trial court denied defendant's motion to suppress, and gave the following reasons for its denial:

"Okay. Well, I don't find that [defendant] did anything while he was left alone in the car that really led the officer to believe that [defendant] was anymore * * * dangerous than anybody else would be in that particular situation. I mean, anybody would turn around and look and see what was going on with your — the person who was driving the car and the police officer, and then turn back, and there would be a little movement, and there was nothing extraordinary in this case.

"I do find that in the legal sense, as opposed to the Newtonian sense, physics, that [defendant] wasn't stopped when the car was stopped, and when the officer asked him to — if he would get out of the car and talk to him, that wasn't * * * under Oregon or federal law a show of authority that would amount to a stop.¹

"And when the officer — the officer had the right under statute to ask about weapons, which he did, weapons and contraband, and I think what distinguishes this case from the [Thompkin] case is that in the [Thompkin] case they got the crack pipe, they're holding onto it for a while, and then they require the woman — I think they were running her I.D., they're doing a records check on her, as well, which is under Oregon case law much more stop-like that what this situation was.

"So the officer asks him to step in the back and talk. The first question the deputy asks is, `Got any weapons or contraband,' which he has the right to ask under the statute. Then he gets consent to search for the weapon, finds the meth, and here we are.

"So I find that the deputy did everything by the book, there was no illegal stop, so I have to deny the motion to suppress."

Defendant then waived his right to a jury trial, and the court convicted him after a trial on stipulated facts. This appeal followed.

Defendan...