State v. Reynolds

• Decision Date: 09 February 1995
• Docket Number: No. 21922,21922
• Citation: 890 P.2d 1315,1995 NMSC 8,119 N.M. 383
• Parties: STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Randall REYNOLDS and David Johnson, Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 1315

890 P.2d 1315

119 N.M. 383

STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. Randall REYNOLDS and David Johnson, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 21922.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Feb. 9, 1995.

[119 N.M. 384] Tom Udall, Atty. Gen., Margaret McLean, Asst. Atty. Gen., Santa Fe, for petitioner.

Sammy J. Quintana, Chief Public Defender, Susan Roth, Asst. Appellate Defender, Santa Fe, for respondents.

OPINION

FRANCHINI, Justice.

On petition of the State of New Mexico, we issued a writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals under NMSA 1978, Sections 34-5-14(B)(3) and (4) (Repl.Pamp.1990) (significant question of constitutional law; issue of substantial public interest). In a consolidated appeal, that Court reversed a district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence discovered pursuant to a search warrant. State v. Reynolds, 117 N.M. 23, 24, 868 P.2d 668, 669 (Ct.App.1993). There are two issues on appeal: (1) whether, under NMSA 1978, Sections 66-2-12(A)(3), 66-3-13, and 66-5-16 (Repl.Pamp.1994), a law enforcement officer is permitted to ask for a driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance once an officer stops an automobile for safety reasons; and (2) whether those statutes are consistent with the constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures afforded by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution. We answer both questions affirmatively.

It is uncontroverted that the police in this case made a lawful automobile stop to warn its passengers of a safety concern. The Court of Appeals held that because "detention beyond the time necessary for the purpose of [a] stop is improper," Reynolds, 117 N.M. at 26, 868 P.2d at 671, the officer's subsequent request to see the driver's license of the driver, registration, and proof of insurance was an unreasonable detention, id. at 27, 868 P.2d at 672. The detention having been unreasonable in the Court's view, the Court ordered suppression of all evidence subsequently acquired as "fruit of the poisonous tree." Id.

We reverse and hold that when a vehicle is lawfully stopped for safety reasons, an officer may reasonably detain the vehicle and its passengers for the purpose of asking for identification, registration, and/or proof of insurance. See § 66-3-13 (stating that person operating vehicle shall display registration upon demand of police officer); § 66-5-16 (stating that person operating vehicle shall display license upon demand of police officer).

Standard of review. Because this case involves a mixed question of law and fact, we use the substantial evidence standard for review of the facts and then make a de novo review of the trial court's application of the law to those facts. See State v. Werner, 117 N.M. 315, 317, 871 P.2d 971, 973 (1994); State v. Attaway, 117 N.M. 141, 144, 870 P.2d 103, 106 (1994).

Facts and proceedings. Defendants Randall Reynolds and Frank Johnson were passengers in the cab of a small pickup truck traveling at night with its emergency lights flashing along Interstate 10.¹ Three men were riding on the tailgate of the truck with their feet hanging close to the road surface. State police officer Frank Musitano was concerned for the safety of the tailgate passengers and stopped the truck. After approaching the truck, Officer Musitano requested identification from the tailgate passengers and for the license, registration, and proof of insurance from the driver, Patricia Bowman. He discovered that the three tailgate passengers were hitchhikers who recently had been picked up. Bowman gave Musitano a valid driver's license but could not produce registration or proof of insurance papers. Musitano noticed Reynolds "fiddling around," and the officer began feeling unsafe because of the number of men, the physical conditions, and the fact that no registration or insurance papers had been produced. Based on this feeling, he requested identification from the two Defendants and returned to his patrol car. He ran a "want and warrant check" on all of the truck's occupants and ran a computer check on the truck's license plate number. After fifteen to twenty minutes, he learned that Johnson was wanted in Delaware and that the license plate belonged to a different car. Officer Musitano obtained the VIN number from the truck and discovered that the truck had been stolen. Musitano let the hitchhikers leave but arrested Bowman, Reynolds, and Johnson. Later, officers obtained a search warrant and discovered other stolen property in the truck.

At a suppression hearing, Defendants argued that after the valid initial stop the detention and request for driver's identification was illegal under State v. Creech, 111 N.M. 490, 806 P.2d 1080 (Ct.App.1991). The trial court denied the motion to suppress. On appeal, the Court of Appeals held that while it is appropriate for police officers to stop vehicles for a specific safety concern, the scope of an intrusion following that stop has to be "strictly tied to and justified by" the purposes of the stop. Reynolds, 117 N.M. at 26, 868 P.2d at 671 (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1878, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). Citing Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 663, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979), for authority and example, the Court found it "difficult to see why it would be 'reasonable' ... to require production of a license, registration, and/or proof of insurance to facilitate a safety warning." Reynolds, 117 N.M. at 26, 868 P.2d at 671. Without addressing the statutes that require production of driver and automobile information on demand, the Court concluded that the officer in this case "exceeded the scope of a reasonable inquiry" after making the safety stop, thus violating the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 27, 868 P.2d at 672.

In continuing detention cases, to determine reasonableness reviewing court must balance policeman's and government's interest in detention against the nature and scope of the intrusion. The Court of Appeals used the single quote from Terry and the narrow holding of Prouse to define its analysis as whether the particular conduct (asking for a license) was related to or justified by the reason for the initial detention (to warn passengers of a potentially unsafe situation). In our view, however, the Court of Appeal's focus was misdirected to a "search" analysis instead of to a "seizure" analysis.

Terry is not controlling. In Terry (a seizure and subsequent search without a warrant), the Supreme Court expressed the test as a dual one: "whether the officer's action was justified at its inception, and whether it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place." Terry, 392 U.S. at 20, 88 S.Ct. at 1879. In order to assess the reasonableness of a particular seizure and search, the reviewing court must first "focus upon the governmental interest which allegedly justifies official intrusion upon the constitutionally protected interests of the private citizen" and this is done "by balancing the need to search [or seize] against the invasion which the search [or seizure] entails." Id. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1879 (quoting Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 534-35, 536-37, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 1734-35, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967)) (alteration in original). Under the facts of this case, the only question posed is whether Officer Musitano's request for identification was "justified at its inception."

In Prouse, the Supreme Court held that police may not randomly stop a vehicle solely to check a driver's license or car registration because a seizure of this nature is arbitrary. 440 U.S. at 663, 99 S.Ct. at 1401. The Court used only the balancing approach in determining reasonableness, testing the validity of the law enforcement practice "by balancing its intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests against its promotion of legitimate governmental interests." Id. at 654, 99 S.Ct. at 1396. Although Terry was cited in Prouse, the Court did not engage in a "search" analysis insofar as it did not refer to the request for license as a "search".

The same year the Court wrote Prouse it published its opinion in Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 99 S.Ct. 2637, 61 L.Ed.2d 357 (1979). There, the Court characterized the detention of an individual for purposes of ascertaining his identity as a "seizure," not a "search". Id. at 50, 99 S.Ct. at 2640. Using the same balancing test as Prouse, the Court concluded that the random stop of a pedestrian to request identification was unreasonable because it was arbitrary. Id. at 52, 99 S.Ct. at 2641. In this case, however, there is no question that Officer Musitano lawfully and properly stopped the truck. Under these circumstances, it was not arbitrary to make the stop. See Prouse, 440 U.S. at 653-54, 99 S.Ct. at 1396 (stating that purpose of Fourth Amendment is to safeguard against arbitrary invasions).

Requesting a driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance is not a "search". For a police action to be characterized as a "search", the officer must somehow search or take an object in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy. See Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J. concurring) (stating that the touchstone of Fourth Amendment analysis of a search is whether the person has a constitutionally-protected reasonable expectation of privacy); cf. State v. Haar, 110 N.M. 517, 524, 797 P.2d 306, 313 (Ct.App.) (holding that police testing of a rifle did not compromise a legitimate interest in privacy and, consequently, was not a "search" under the Fourth Amendment), cert. denied, 110 N.M. 330, 795 P.2d 1022 (1990).

A driver's license is a document specifically created for the purpose of proving that an individual is qualified to drive. It is intended to be a public document and individuals regularly display their...