State v. Martin
Decision Date | 09 April 1998 |
Citation | 327 Or. 17,956 P.2d 956 |
Parties | STATE of Oregon, Petitioner on Review, v. Steven Lamont MARTIN, Respondent on Review. CC C95-03-31796; CA A88759; SC S44459. |
Court | Oregon Supreme Court |
Douglas F. Zier, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause and filed the petition for petitioner on review. With him on the petition were Hardy Myers, Attorney General, and Virginia L. Linder, Solicitor General.
David C. Degner, Deputy Public Defender, Salem, argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent on review. With him on the brief was Sally L. Avera, Public Defender.
Before CARSON, C.J., and GILLETTE, VAN HOOMISSEN, DURHAM and LEESON, JJ. *
This is a criminal case in which defendant was charged with one count each of unlawful delivery and unlawful possession of cocaine, a controlled substance. ORS 475.992. Defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence, claiming that the charges against him were based on evidence seized in a warrantless search of his person and that the warrantless search was without probable cause. The trial court agreed and suppressed the evidence. The state appealed that pretrial order to the Court of Appeals. ORS 138.060(3). A divided panel of the Court of Appeals affirmed. State v. Martin, 146 Or.App. 459, 934 P.2d 467 (1997). We allowed the state's petition for review and now reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and the order of the trial court.
We take the facts from the majority opinion of the Court of Appeals, as supplemented by the dissent and the testimony of the arresting officer. 1
146 Or.App. at 461-62, 934 P.2d 467.
In addition, the following facts are important: The bus stop was a place at which, according to Mahuna, drug dealing was going on "twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week." Such intense commercial activity was made possible by the fact that the bus stop was only one half-block from an apartment complex that served, again according to Mahuna, as a kind of "safe haven" for drug dealers, who either live in or have keys to the complex. Mahuna explained that a dealer typically would keep a significant store of drugs in the complex, but would venture onto the street with only a small amount, because in an emergency it would be easier to quickly dispose of such an amount. Once they made a sale, Mahuna testified, dealers would return to the complex to obtain more drugs and go through the same process again.
Mahuna also testified that many "hand-to-hand" drug sales occurred at the location of the bus stop. The transactions, which took only a few seconds, would occur either at the corner or around the corner and part way down a side street. Mahuna explained that "a lot" of people did not like to conduct their drug transactions on Killingsworth, which is a major arterial street in the area.
Finally, Mahuna testified that, although he did not actually see anything pass to or from defendant's hand when defendant reached inside the van, what he saw was consistent with other "hand-to-hand" drug transactions that he had observed at that very corner.
As noted, defendant moved to suppress the evidence seized from him. The trial court granted the motion, ruling that, although Mahuna believed that he earlier had observed a drug transaction, that belief was not objectively reasonable, without some observation that defendant actually had exchanged something tangible with someone in the van.
On the state's appeal, the Court of Appeals characterized Mahuna's actions in his encounter with defendant as an arrest. 146 Or.App. at 462-63, 934 P.2d 467. We agree. The Court of Appeals then concluded, however, that Mahuna did not have probable cause to arrest defendant. Id. at 463, 934 P.2d 467. For the reasons that follow, we disagree with that conclusion.
Under ORS 133.310(1)(a), an officer may arrest a person without a warrant "if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed * * * [a] felony." The amount of objective knowledge required to provide "probable cause" to make such an arrest is defined in ORS 131.005(11): An arresting officer has probable cause to arrest if "there is a substantial objective basis for believing that more likely than not an offense has been committed and a person to be arrested has committed it." Those statutory standards are met in this case.
Relying on his previous experience, Mahuna testified that: (1) due to the availability of a "safe haven" for dealers in a nearby apartment complex, drug transactions were occurring at the location of the bus stop on a more-or-less continuous basis; (2) defendant was at that location late at night, with no other apparent purpose for being there; (3) when hailed by the occupant of the van, defendant looked both up and down the street before going to the van, as if to assure that he would not be observed closely when he reached it; (4) defendant's interaction with the occupants of the van was consistent with a "han...
To continue reading
Request your trial