State v. Le

• Decision Date: 13 November 2000
• Docket Number: No. 43856-5-I.
• Citation: State v. Le, 12 P.3d 653, 103 Wash.App. 354 (Wash. App. 2000)
• Parties: STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Tan LE, Appellant.
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals

12 P.3d 653

103 Wash.App. 354

STATE of Washington, Respondent, v.Tan LE, Appellant.

No. 43856-5-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

November 13, 2000.

Shannon Brooke Marsh, Seattle, for Appellant.

Scott A. Marlow, Deputy Pros.Atty., Seattle, for Respondent.

BAKER, J.

While investigating a residential burglary call, a police officer saw a young Asian male exiting the front door of the home.Officers gave chase but were unable to locate or track the suspect.Soon thereafter, acting on a tip, officers forcibly entered the home of Tan Le and arrested him without a search warrant or an arrest warrant.The first officer was called to Le's residence and there identified Le as the suspect she had seen fleeing the scene of the crime approximately three hours earlier.The trial court suppressed all physical evidence discovered in Le's home as fruits of an illegal search, but refused to suppress the officer's postarrest identification of Le, reasoning that the officers had probable cause to arrest him and there was an independent basis for her identification.Le was found guilty of residential burglary, and now appeals.

We hold that Le was illegally arrested and that the officer's postarrest identification of Le should have been suppressed.However, because the in-court identification was admissible, and because the postarrest identification was harmless error, we affirm the conviction.

I

Police officer Diana Nollette responded to a burglary in progress call placed by a man who saw two young Asian males jump over his neighbors' fence.Officer Nollette and other officers set up a perimeter around the home and announced their presence.Officer Nollette saw an Asian male fleeing the residence.She gave chase until she lost him, then returned to the house.

At that point, a second Asian male stepped out of the front door of the house.Officer Nollette ordered the suspect to stop, and he turned and looked directly at her for approximately ten seconds before running away.She gave chase until she lost sight of him, then broadcast a description of the suspect.A K-9 officer was called in to assist with the search.Meanwhile, the homeowner told police that he believed a firearm was missing from his home.

Officer Michael Lewis and his tracking dog arrived on the scene and searched the area.Ninety minutes into the search, the officer saw a nearby residence with the front door open.Officer Lewis and the tracking dog searched the house but did not find anyone there.Unable to locate a suspect, they terminated the search and left the scene.

Approximately 15 minutes later, a local resident called 911 and indicated that a "young man" had just run through his yard and into the house that had just been searched by Officer Lewis.No further description of the suspect was given.Police returned to the house and found the front door closed and locked.One of the officers saw someone inside running toward the rear of the residence.Although he lacked a search warrant, Officer Lewis and his tracking dog entered the home through an unlocked window and searched the house.Officer Lewis noticed a number of locked doors in the basement of the residence.Unable to determine whether the house was empty, Officer Lewis waited until a superior officer arrived.Still lacking a warrant, the superior officer gave permission to break into the locked rooms.As Officer Lewis kicked in one door, he heard a voice coming from another room and ordered the occupant to come out.The suspect exited the room and was immediately arrested.That person was defendantTan Le, who resided at the home where the arrest took place.

Officer Nollette was called to the scene, where she identified Le as the second person she had chased from the burglarized residence approximately three hours earlier.She indicated that Le was not wearing the same clothing that he wore when she saw him fleeing the scene of the crime, but she was certain that he was the same person.Officers seized some clothing from the residence during the search.

Le was charged with residential burglary and theft of a firearm.At a CrR 3.6 hearing prior to trial, Le moved to suppress all physical evidence seized from his residence as fruits of an illegal search.In addition, Le moved to suppress Officer Nollette's identification of him as the fruit of an illegal arrest.The trial court granted Le's motion to suppress physical evidence, finding that the warrantless search of Le's home was illegal and that the "hot pursuit" and "exigent circumstances" exceptions were inapplicable.However, the court refused to suppress Officer Nollette's postarrest identification of Le as fruit of the poisonous tree, concluding that the arrest was properly supported by probable cause and the officer had an independent basis for her identification.The trial court later permitted Officer Nollette to identify Le in court.The jury acquitted Le of theft of a firearm, but found him guilty of residential burglary.Le appeals.

II

We review a trial court's decision to admit or exclude evidence for an abuse of discretion.¹A trial court abuses its discretion when its decision is manifestly unreasonable or based on untenable grounds.²

Le argues that Officer Nollette's postarrest identification of him should have been suppressed as the fruit of an illegal arrest.If the arrest was legal, then the officer's postarrest identification of Le would clearly be permissible.Therefore, as a preliminary matter, we must first determine whether Le was illegally arrested.

A police officer may make a warrantless felony arrest in a public place if supported by probable cause.³However, in the absence of exigent circumstances, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits police from making a warrantless, nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home in order to make a routine felony arrest.⁴This is true even where the arrest is supported by probable cause.⁵

Exigent circumstances justifying warrantless police entry into a home to carry out an arrest may be found where: (1) a grave offense, particularly a violent crime, is involved; (2) the suspect is reasonably believed to be armed; (3) there is reasonably trustworthy information that the suspect is guilty; (4) there is strong reason to believe that the suspect is on the premises; (5) the suspect is likely to escape if not apprehended; and (6) the entry is made peaceably.⁶Five additional examples of exigent circumstances include: (7) hot pursuit; (8) fleeing suspect; (9) danger to arresting officer or to the public; (10) mobility of the vehicle; and (11) mobility or destruction of the evidence.⁷

Here, the trial court analyzed all of these factors and concluded that the warrantless search of Le's home violated his federal and state constitutional rights.Specifically, the court concluded that the exigent circumstances exception was inapplicable to the case, and that there was no "hot pursuit" because the pursuit had ended well before Le was seized.The court nevertheless held that the arrest of Le was proper because it was supported by probable cause.This ruling was plainly incorrect.In the absence of consent or exigent circumstances, the police were constitutionally prohibited from making a warrantless entry into Le's home to make a felony arrest, even if probable cause existed to arrest him.⁸The State does not assign error to the trial court's findings that the exigent circumstances and hot pursuit exceptions to the warrant requirement did not apply to this case.We hold that Le was illegally arrested.We need not decide whether there was probable cause to arrest Le in order to reach this conclusion.

The principal issue before us in this case is whether Officer Nollette's postarrest identification of Le should have been suppressed under the exclusionary rule as the fruit of an illegal arrest.Le argues that the postarrest identification should have been excluded because the State may not exploit an illegal arrest to obtain incriminating evidence.The State argues that the identification was admissible despite any extraneous procedural illegalities because Officer Nollette observed Le prior to the illegal search, and thus there was an independent basis for the pretrial identification.Unfortunately, both parties greatly oversimplify the required analysis.

The exclusionary rule requires courts to suppress evidence obtained through violation of a defendant's constitutional rights.⁹The purpose of the rule is to deter police from exploiting their illegal conduct and to protect individual rights.¹⁰Under the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, the exclusionary rule applies to evidence derived directly and indirectly from the illegal police conduct.¹¹Derivative evidence will be excluded unless it was not obtained by exploitation of the initial illegality or by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.¹²To prove that the evidence was purged of taint, the State must show either that: (1) intervening circumstances have attenuated the link between the illegality and the evidence;¹³(2) the evidence was discovered through a source independent from the illegality;¹⁴ or (3) the evidence would inevitably have been discovered through legitimate means.¹⁵

Although Washington courts have addressed the issue of whether in-court identifications are admissible, the related issue of whether postarrest identification evidence is a tainted fruit of an illegal arrest is one of first impression in Washington.¹⁶Elsewhere, this issue has caused courts"particular difficulty."¹⁷

Professor LaFave urges that an identification following an illegal arrest should be excluded as direct evidence, unless the identification is sufficiently attenuated from the primary illegality.¹⁸Courts following this approach have applied essentially the same attenuation analysis used in Brown v. Illinois¹⁹ to determine the connection between an illegal...