State v. Prendergast

• Decision Date: 02 February 2004
• Docket Number: No. 24793.,24793.
• Citation: 83 P.3d 714,103 Haw. 451
• Parties: STATE of Hawai`i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William L. PRENDERGAST, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

83 P.3d 714

103 Haw. 451

STATE of Hawai`i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William L. PRENDERGAST, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 24793.

Supreme Court of Hawai`i.

February 2, 2004.

Bryant Zane, Deputy Public Defender, on the briefs, for defendant-appellant William L. Prendergast.

Arleen Y. Watanabe, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, on the briefs, for plaintiff-appellee State of Hawai`i.

MOON, C.J., LEVINSON, NAKAYAMA, and DUFFY, JJ.; with ACOBA, J., concurring separately.

Opinion of the Court by DUFFY, J.

Defendant-appellant William L. Prendergast appeals from the second circuit court's judgment of conviction and sentence for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor [hereinafter, "DUI"] filed on November 21, 2001. Prendergast argues that the district court erroneously denied his motion to suppress evidence recovered as a result of an anonymous tip that he was driving erratically. Based on the following, we affirm the district court's ruling on the motion to suppress as well as the district court's judgment of conviction and sentence.

I. BACKGROUND

At approximately 9:05 p.m. on May 7, 2001, Maui Police Department (MPD) Officer Gordon Sagun was at the Kihei Police Station. The MPD dispatcher called Officer Sagun and informed him that a caller, who identified himself as Daniel Gilbert, reported that a silver Honda Accord with license plate number EGN 656 had crossed over the center line on Honoapi'ilani highway; the caller reported that the Accord had almost caused several head-on collisions and had almost hit a guardrail. The caller told the dispatcher that the Accord had turned on to North Kihei Road, and the dispatcher relayed this information to Officer Sagun. The dispatcher also informed Officer Sagun that the caller was on the other line and was calling from a cellular phone.

At approximately 9:13 p.m., Officer Sagun was traveling north on North Kihei Road when he saw a line of vehicles, including an Accord matching the caller's description, traveling south on North Kihei Road. Officer Sagun testified that there were three or four cars in front of the Accord and two or three cars behind it, and that the cars "were all pretty much bunched together." After he passed the Accord and the other cars, Officer Sagun turned around. He had already activated his blue lights and siren; the two or three cars behind the Accord pulled over, and Officer Sagun was able to catch up with the Accord.

Officer Sagun did not personally observe the Accord moving erratically. Instead, he pulled over the Accord as soon as he turned around. He testified that "the call came down as a reckless driver; I wanted to stop him already. He almost caused a head-on collision, that's what the caller was saying."

The caller indicated that he was a tourist and was unable to stop because he was going to the airport. The district court found that there was no further information about the caller other than that his name was Daniel Gilbert.

The prosecution subsequently charged the driver, Prendergast, with driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor in violation of Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 291-4(a)(1) (Supp.2000)¹ and with reckless driving of a vehicle in violation of HRS § 291-2 (Supp.2000).² Prendergast moved to suppress the evidence obtained from the warrantless search and seizure of his person and property. The district court, the Honorable Barclay E. MacDonald presiding, denied the motion to suppress. Prendergast subsequently entered a plea of no contest to DUI, conditioned upon his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress; in exchange, the prosecution dismissed the count of reckless driving. Prendergast filed a notice of appeal with this court on December 20, 2001.

II. STANDARDS OF REVIEW

A. Constitutional Law

"We answer questions of constitutional law by exercising our own independent judgment based on the facts of the case. Thus, we review questions of constitutional law under the `right/wrong' standard." State v. Jenkins, 93 Hawai`i 87, 100, 997 P.2d 13, 26 (2000) (citations and internal quotation signals omitted).

B. Motion to Suppress

"An appellate court reviews a ruling on a motion to suppress de novo to determine whether the ruling was `right' or `wrong.'" State v. Rodgers, 99 Hawai`i 70, 72, 53 P.3d 209, 211, recons. denied, 98 Hawai`i 506, 51 P.3d 373 (2002).

III. DISCUSSION

A. A Traffic Stop is a "Seizure" Under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 7 of the Hawai`i Constitution.

The United States Supreme Court has held that when a police officer stops an automobile and detains its occupants, a "seizure" occurs so as to implicate the fourth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution.³Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 653, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979); State v. Bolosan, 78 Hawai`i 86, 92, 890 P.2d 673, 679 (1995).⁴

We presume that a warrantless search or seizure is invalid unless and until the prosecution proves that the search or seizure falls within a well-recognized and narrowly defined exception to the warrant requirement. State v. Lopez, 78 Hawai`i 433, 442-43, 896 P.2d 889, 898-99 (1995). If the prosecution fails to meet this burden, the evidence obtained from the illegal search will be suppressed as "fruit of the poisonous tree." State v. Fukusaku, 85 Hawai`i 462, 475, 946 P.2d 32, 45 (1997); see also Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 484-85, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)

.

One such narrowly defined exception to the warrant requirement is that a police officer may stop an automobile and detain its occupants if that officer has a "reasonable suspicion" that the person stopped was engaged in criminal conduct. Bolosan, 78 Hawai`i at 94, 890 P.2d at 681. "To justify an investigative stop, short of an arrest based on probable cause, `the police officer must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.'" State v. Barnes, 58 Haw. 333, 338, 568 P.2d 1207, 1211 (1977) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). To determine whether the officer indeed had specific and articulable facts to justify the investigative stop, we examine the totality of the circumstances measured by an objective standard. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002) ("When discussing how reviewing courts should make reasonable-suspicion determinations, we have said repeatedly that they must look at the `totality of the circumstances' of each case to see whether the detaining officer has a `particularized and objective basis' for suspecting legal wrongdoing."); Barnes, 58 Haw. at 338, 568 P.2d at 1211 ("The ultimate test in these situations must be whether from these facts, measured by an objective standard, a man of reasonable caution would be warranted in believing that criminal activity was afoot and that the action taken was appropriate.").

B. An Anonymous Tip is Frequently Insufficient to Justify a Search or Seizure.

Both this court and the United States Supreme Court have placed constraints on police officers' ability to act on an anonymous tip. We briefly address three opinions that help to define the permissible use of anonymous tips.

1. Florida v. J.L.

The recent opinion of the United States Supreme Court in Florida v. J.L., 529 U.S. 266, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000), provides us with guidance on the constitutionality of an investigatory traffic stop based on an anonymous tip. In J.L., the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of a stop and frisk based on an anonymous tip informing the police that an individual standing at a bus stop was carrying a gun. Id. at 268, 120 S.Ct. 1375. The anonymous caller stated that a young black male, wearing a plaid shirt, was standing at a particular bus stop and was carrying a gun. Id. Police officers went to the bus stop and saw three black males, one of whom was wearing a plaid shirt. Id. The police officers did not see a gun and did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Id. Aside from the tip, the officers did not have any reason to suspect that any one of these individuals was engaged in criminal activity. Id.

The Supreme Court held that this anonymous tip was insufficient to justify the stop and frisk because the tip did not contain sufficient indicia of reliability. Id. The Court first stated its concerns in relying on anonymous tips:

Unlike a tip from a known informant whose reputation can be assessed and who can be held responsible if her allegations turn out to be fabricated, see Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146-147, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972), "an anonymous tip alone seldom demonstrates the informant's basis of knowledge or veracity," Alabama v. White, 496 U.S. 325], at 329, 110 S.Ct. 2412, 110 L.Ed.2d 301[ (1990)]. As we have recognized, however, there are situations in which an anonymous tip, suitably corroborated, exhibits "sufficient indicia of reliability to provide reasonable suspicion to make the investigatory stop." Id., at 327, 110 S.Ct. 2412.

J.L., 529 U.S. at 270, 120 S.Ct. 1375. The Court noted that the anonymous call in J.L. did not provide any predictive information regarding the subject's activities, such that the police officers did not have any basis on which to judge the informant's credibility. Id. at 271, 120 S.Ct. 1375. Although the informant did in fact identify a determinate person, the informant did not articulate her or his basis for knowing that J.L. was carrying a concealed weapon. Id.⁵

The Court also rejected the argument that, because firearms are extraordinarily dangerous, any tip regarding firearms ought to give rise to an exception to the warrant requirement. Id. at 272, 120 S.Ct. 1375. Justice Ginsburg, writing for the Court, noted:

[A]n automatic firearm exception to our established reliability analysis would rove too far. Such an

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