State v. Lovegren

• Decision Date: 09 July 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-712.,00-712.
• Citation: 2002 MT 153,310 Mont. 358,51 P.3d 471
• Parties: STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Michael D. LOVEGREN, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

51 P.3d 471

2002 MT 153

310 Mont. 358

STATE of Montana, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Michael D. LOVEGREN, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 00-712.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs July 12, 2001.

Decided July 9, 2002.

Michael D. Lovegren, Crane, Montana, pro se, For Appellant.

Mike McGrath, Attorney General, Carol E. Schmidt, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Montana; Mike Weber, Richland County Attorney, Daniel B. Bidegaray, Deputy Richland County Attorney, Sidney, Montana, For Respondent.

Justice JAMES C. NELSON delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶ 1 Michael D. Lovegren pleaded guilty in the District Court for the Seventh Judicial District, Richland County, to the offense of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Prior to entering his guilty plea, Lovegren moved to suppress all of the evidence obtained by the arresting officer, but the District Court denied his motion. Lovegren now appeals the court's denial of his motion to suppress. We affirm.

¶ 2 We address the following issue on appeal: Did the District Court err when it denied Lovegren's motion to suppress?

Factual and Procedural Background

¶ 3 On the night of October 31, 1998, Officer Gary Hofer of the Richland County Sheriff's Department was on routine patrol. At approximately 3:05 a.m., he came upon a vehicle parked on the side of Highway 16 South in Richland County between Crane and Sidney. The vehicle's motor was running, but its headlights were off. Officer Hofer stopped to investigate.

¶ 4 When Officer Hofer approached the vehicle and looked in the window, he saw Lovegren sitting in the driver's seat. Lovegren appeared to be asleep. Officer Hofer knocked on the window and, when Lovegren did not respond, Officer Hofer opened the door. Lovegren suddenly woke up and stated: "I was drinking." Officer Hofer smelled a strong odor of alcohol and he noticed that Lovegren's eyes were bloodshot, so he had Lovegren perform various field sobriety tests. Lovegren failed both the one-legged stand and the heel-to-toe test. Hence, Officer Hofer transported Lovegren to the station where a breath test was performed. The test results showed that Lovegren's blood alcohol content was .115. Officer Hofer read Lovegren his Miranda rights and wrote out a citation charging him with driving under the influence of alcohol in violation of § 61-8-401, MCA.

¶ 5 Lovegren subsequently moved to suppress all of the evidence obtained by Officer Hofer claiming that it was an illegal search and seizure. The Justice Court denied Lovegren's motion to suppress and, on January 11, 1999, that court convicted him of violating § 61-8-401, MCA. The court fined Lovegren $420 and sentenced him to 60 days in jail with all but one day suspended. The court also suspended Lovegren's driver's license for six months. Thereafter, Lovegren appealed to the District Court.

¶ 6 On May 12, 1999, Lovegren filed a motion in the District Court asking the court to suppress all of the evidence obtained in the investigative stop on the grounds that Officer Hofer lacked a particularized suspicion of any wrongdoing on Lovegren's part, thus the stop was not justified. On May 26, 1999, the District Court denied Lovegren's motion stating that a particularized suspicion was not required in this situation, as Officer Hofer had a duty to investigate for Lovegren's own safety.

¶ 7 Lovegren entered into a plea agreement on July 13, 1999, wherein he agreed to plead guilty to the charge of driving or being in actual physical control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. However, pursuant to § 46-12-204, MCA, Lovegren reserved his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. Lovegren was subsequently convicted of the charge and the District Court reimposed the sentence handed down by the Justice Court. Lovegren appeals.

Discussion

¶ 8 Did the District Court err when it denied Lovegren's motion to suppress?

¶ 9 We review a district court's denial of a motion to suppress to determine whether the court's finding that the officer involved had a particularized suspicion to justify the investigatory stop is clearly erroneous. State v. Farabee, 2000 MT 265, ¶ 11, 302 Mont. 29, ¶ 11, 22 P.3d 175, ¶ 11 (citing State v. Gilder, 1999 MT 207, ¶ 7, 295 Mont. 483, ¶ 7, 985 P.2d 147, ¶ 7). We review a district court's conclusions of law regarding a motion to suppress to determine whether the district court's interpretation of the law was correct. Farabee, ¶ 11.

¶ 10 Lovegren argues that his Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure was violated when Officer Hofer, after noticing Lovegren's car parked on the side of the road, stopped to check on Lovegren's welfare. Lovegren contends that this investigative stop was not justified because Officer Hofer did not have a particularized suspicion that Lovegren had committed, was committing, or was about to commit an offense.

¶ 11 Lovegren also contends that the District Court overstepped its authority by inferring more from the police reports than what they actually said. Lovegren notes that in the police report, Officer Hofer clearly stated that the driver of the vehicle "appeared to be asleep" and that there were no references in the report to any signs of struggle or trauma to indicate the need of further assistance. Thus, Lovegren argues that the District Court erred in concluding that although the report indicates that the driver appeared to be asleep, the officer could not know whether the driver was asleep, ill, unconscious or even dead.

¶ 12 The State argues, on the other hand, that the District Court correctly determined that Officer Hofer did not need a particularized suspicion of criminal activity in this situation. The State maintains that the court correctly applied the "community caretaker doctrine"—even though the court did not identify it as such—in determining that Officer Hofer was justified in stopping to check on Lovegren's welfare and that Officer Hofer would have been derelict in his duties had he not done so. Moreover, the State argues that simply because it was Lovegren's subsequent actions that created a particularized suspicion of criminal activity, that does not negate the validity of Officer Hofer's initial stop to see if Lovegren needed assistance.

¶ 13 Not all contact between police officers and citizens involves the "seizure" of a person under the Fourth Amendment. As the State noted in its brief on appeal, many courts recognize the existence of three categories of police-citizen encounters. See United States v. Berry (5th Cir.1982), 670 F.2d 583, 591

; Thompson v. State (1990), 303 Ark. 407, 797 S.W.2d 450, 451; People v. Murray (1990), 137 Ill.2d 382, 148 Ill.Dec. 7, 560 N.E.2d 309, 311-12; People v. Bauman (4th Dist.1990), 204 Ill.App.3d 813, 149 Ill. Dec. 872, 562 N.E.2d 336, 339,

cert denied 502 U.S. 960, 112 S.Ct. 424, 116 L.Ed.2d 444 (1991); State v. Walters (Ct.App.1996), 123 N.M. 88, 934 P.2d 282, 285; Wilson v. State (Wyo.1994), 874 P.2d 215, 220.

¶ 14 The first category of police-citizen encounters involves the arrest of a citizen which must be supported by probable cause otherwise the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable seizures is violated. Henry v. United States (1959), 361 U.S. 98, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134.

¶ 15 The next category involves the "Terry" stop, a brief seizure of the individual that must be supported by a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity to be within acceptable Fourth Amendment boundaries. Terry v. Ohio (1968), 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889.

¶ 16 The final and least intrusive category does not involve any form of detention at all and, therefore, does not involve a seizure. This category is generally referred to as the "community caretaker" or public safety function. The United States Supreme Court recognized this category of police intrusion in Terry when it noted:

Street encounters between citizens and police officers are incredibly rich in diversity. They range from wholly friendly exchanges of pleasantries or mutually useful information to hostile confrontations of armed men involving arrests, or injuries or loss of life. Moreover, hostile confrontations are not all of a piece. Some of them begin in a friendly enough manner, only to take a different turn upon the injection of some unexpected element into the conversation. Encounters are initiated by the police for a wide variety of purposes, some of which are wholly unrelated to a desire to prosecute for crime.

Terry, 392 U.S. at 13, 88 S.Ct. at 1875-76.

¶ 17 Five years after Terry, the Supreme Court more specifically defined the community caretaker doctrine.

Because of the extensive regulation of motor vehicles and traffic, and also because of the frequency with which a vehicle can become disabled or involved in an accident on public highways, the extent of police-citizen contact involving automobiles will be substantially greater than police-citizen contact in a home or office. Some such contacts will occur because the officer may believe the operator has violated a criminal statute, but many more will not be of that nature. Local police officers, unlike federal officers, frequently investigate vehicle accidents in which there is no claim of criminal liability and engage in what, for want of a better term, may be described as community caretaking functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute.

Cady v. Dombrowski (1973), 413 U.S. 433, 441, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 2528, 37 L.Ed.2d 706.

¶ 18 Because this Court has not squarely addressed the community caretaker doctrine,¹ we take this opportunity to survey the law from other jurisdictions in this area and to set forth our own test for application of this doctrine.

¶ 19 Of the many jurisdictions that have addressed this doctrine, a majority have adopted it in some form....