State v. Rabon, Docket: Oxf-05-518.
| Decision Date | 14 August 2007 |
| Docket Number | Docket: Oxf-05-518. |
| Citation | 930 A.2d 268,2007 ME 113 |
| Parties | STATE of Maine v. Charles B. RABON et al. |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General, Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Atty. Gen. (orally), David W. Fisher, Asst. Atty. Gen., Augusta, for State.
James F. Martemucci, Esq. (orally), Martemucci & Topchik, LLC, Portland, Leonard I. Sharon, Esq. (orally), Sharon, Leary & DeTroy, Auburn, for defendants.
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, ALEXANDER, CALKINS, LEVY, and SILVER, JJ.*
[¶ 1] Charles B. and Sharon R. Rabon appeal from judgments of conviction entered in the Superior Court (Oxford County, Gorman, J.) on Charles's conditional guilty plea for unlawful furnishing of a scheduled drug (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. § 1106(1-A)(A) (2006) and plea for criminal forfeiture, 15 M.R.S. § 5826 (2006), and on Sharon's conditional guilty plea for unlawful possession of a scheduled drug (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 1107-A(1)(C) (2006). The Rabons contend that the court (Humphrey, C.J.) erred when it denied their joint motion to suppress based on its conclusion that an initial warrantless entry into the Rabons' apartment by officers of the Rumford Police Department was unlawful, but that suppression of the evidence was not required based on the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule. We conclude that because probable cause to search did not exist without the information obtained during the initial warrantless entry, no exception to the warrant requirement or the exclusionary rule applies, and we vacate the convictions.
[¶ 2] During the summer of 2004, the Rumford Police Department received information indicating that the Rabons were involved in transporting cocaine from Florida for sale in Maine. The Rumford police, in cooperation with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA), investigated the Rabons, and on August 13, 2004, sought and obtained a warrant to search the Rabons' apartment for evidence of drug trafficking.
[¶ 3] The information concerning the Rabons' activities came from a confidential informant who was the subject of a pending criminal charge or charges. The informant requested prosecutorial consideration if any of the information he or she provided proved helpful in a drug trafficking case. The confidential informant claimed that Charles Rabon drives to Florida several times during the year to pick up large amounts of cocaine, brings the cocaine back to the apartment that he shares with his wife Sharon in Rumford, and then distributes most of his cocaine to local dealers for sale at local bars where Charles operates a karaoke business.
[¶ 4] As found by the Superior Court, on August 13, five police officers were sent to the Rabons' apartment to secure the scene in anticipation of the issuance of a search warrant that was to be sought by other officers. The officers arrived at the Rabons' apartment at 11:58 A.M. An officer in plain clothes, but wearing a vest that clearly identified him as a police officer, knocked on the closed front door of the apartment. One of the other officers observed a woman peek through the blinds of a window near the door. One of the officers heard the woman say "Oh shit," and observed her run toward the back of the apartment. The officers immediately opened the door and entered the apartment without consent and located both Rabons. Charles was found sitting at a desk on which there was a container of white powder and a digital scale. The officers handcuffed the Rabons, conducted a brief safety search of the house for firearms or other inhabitants, took photographs of the inside of the apartment, and made a list of the telephone numbers listed in the Rabons' telephone's caller ID. The officers then sat with the Rabons to await the issuance of a search warrant.
[¶ 5] The MDEA agent who participated in the preparation of the warrant request included in paragraphs ten and eleven of his affidavit information concerning the other officers' warrantless entry into the Rabons' apartment. The District Court (Rumford, Lawrence, J.) issued a search warrant at 4:31 P.M. The resulting search of the apartment led to the seizure of cocaine and money.
[¶ 6] The first paragraph of the warrant affidavit details the agent's training and experience in law enforcement and drug investigations.1 The second paragraph explains that the agent was seeking the warrant at the request of the Rumford Police Department to search the Rabons' apartment and van "both situated at 73 Plymouth Avenue in Rumford (Oxford County), Maine[,] . . . for cocaine and other evidence as it pertains to possession, furnishing and/or trafficking of scheduled drugs." The remaining paragraphs detail the initial information provided by the informant in June of 2004, and on August 11 and 13, 2004, and explain the extent to which the police were able to corroborate the same.
[¶ 7] The affidavit reports that the police corroborated that the Rabons' blue van was not at their apartment on August 11 and 12, and that it returned on August 13, a period corresponding to the informant's claim that the Rabons' were returning from a drug run to Florida. In addition, the affidavit reports police corroboration of the Rabons' names, telephone number, address, car, color of their apartment building, the fact that Charles Rabon had received a summons for excessive noise and had not been subject to a search, and that two bars in the Rumford and Mexico area, named by the informant as locations where Charles Rabon trafficked in drugs, were known to the police as places where drugs are trafficked. As already noted, it also contains a description of the entry into the Rabons' apartment by the police earlier that day.
[¶ 8] Following their arrest, the Rabons were each charged with aggravated trafficking of scheduled drugs (Class A) pursuant to 17-A M.R.S. § 1105-A(1)(C-1)(1) (2006), and a count seeking criminal forfeiture pursuant to 15 M.R.S. § 5826. The Rabons filed a joint motion to suppress all of the evidence obtained from their apartment. They contended that the police had, without probable cause, conducted a warrantless search when they initially entered the apartment and had then used the information illegally obtained through the search to establish probable cause in a warrant affidavit. The Rabons contended that the resulting search warrant was based upon wrongfully obtained information and was, therefore, unlawful, in violation of the United States and Maine Constitutions.
[¶ 9] The Superior Court denied the motion to suppress. The court found that the initial warrantless entry into the Rabons' apartment was illegal and not justified by the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement. The court reasoned that the police had created the exigency by knocking on the apartment's door. Nonetheless, the court concluded that suppression of the evidence obtained as a result of the initial and post-warrant searches of the Rabons' apartment was not required. The court applied the inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary rule, and concluded that "the warrant was truly independent from the [initial] illegal entry[,] and discovery of the physical evidence by that lawful means was truly inevitable."
[¶ 10] After the denial of the joint motion to suppress, Sharon Rabon entered a conditional guilty plea to unlawful possession of a scheduled drug (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 1107-A(1)(C), and, pursuant to a plea agreement, the aggravated trafficking and criminal forfeiture counts of the indictment were dismissed by the State. Charles Rabon entered a conditional guilty plea to unlawful furnishing of a scheduled drug (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. § 1106(1-A)(A), and as a result of this and his plea to criminal forfeiture, the State dismissed the aggravated trafficking count. The Superior Court approved the Rabons' conditional guilty pleas, thereby preserving their right to appeal from the court's denial of their motion to suppress.2 This appeal followed.
[¶ 11] "It is beyond question that a person's home, and the rights of an individual within that home, have a special place in our jurisprudence." State v. Boilard, 488 A.2d 1380, 1388 (Me.1985). The United States and Maine Constitutions guarantee the right to be secure in one's home from unreasonable searches and seizures.3 A warrantless search of a home is, as a matter of law, unreasonable unless: (1) "it is supported by probable cause" and "exigent circumstances exist requiring a prompt search, without the delay occasioned by the need for a warrant"; or (2) "the search is pursuant to another recognized exception to the warrant requirement." State v. Leonard, 2002 ME 125, ¶ 12, 802 A.2d 991, 994 (quotation marks omitted).
[¶ 12] The Rabons' central contention is that because the officers lacked probable cause to search the apartment prior to the warrantless entry, no evidence gathered from the initial warrantless entry into the apartment or from the subsequent search of the apartment pursuant to the warrant can be admitted against them. The State contends that the contested evidence was lawfully seized because the officers' initial warrantless entry into the apartment was justified by the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement;4 was nonetheless justified as a reasonable, temporary seizure in order to secure the premises and preserve any evidence within it pending the issuance of a search warrant; or because, as the Superior Court concluded, the inevitable discovery exception permits the admission of the evidence seized from the Rabons.
[¶ 13] The parties' contentions cause us to consider: (A) the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant...
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