State v. Rohde, A13–0610.

• Decision Date: 20 August 2014
• Docket Number: No. A13–0610.,A13–0610.
• Citation: 852 N.W.2d 260
• Parties: STATE of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Erica Ann ROHDE, Appellant.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

852 N.W.2d 260

STATE of Minnesota, Respondent,

v.Erica Ann ROHDE, Appellant.

No. A13–0610.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Aug. 20, 2014.

Syllabus by the Court

An inventory search of a motor vehicle was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution because the police improperly impounded the vehicle of a driver who was stopped but not arrested for misdemeanor traffic offenses when the vehicle was lawfully parked.

Lori Swanson, Attorney General, Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Anthony C. Palumbo, Anoka County Attorney, Donald LeBaron, Assistant Anoka County Attorney, Anoka, Minnesota, for respondent.

Adam T. Johnson, Meshbesher & Associates, P.A., Minneapolis, Minnesota, for appellant.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Justice.

Appellant Erica Rohde was convicted of fifth-degree drug possession, Minn.Stat. § 152.025, subd. 2(a)(1) (2012), and possession of drug paraphernalia, Minn.Stat. § 152.092 (2012), based on evidence that police officers found while performing an inventory search during the course of impounding Rohde's car. The district court denied Rohde's motion to suppress the evidence as the product of an unconstitutional search. The court of appeals affirmed. State v. Rohde, 839 N.W.2d 758, 766 (Minn.App.2013). We granted Rohde's petition for review. The issue presented on appeal is whether the impoundment of the vehicle was unreasonable and, therefore, the subsequent inventory search of Rohde's car was unconstitutional. We conclude that the impoundment was unreasonable and therefore the search was unconstitutional.

During the afternoon of September 11, 2012, Blaine Police Officer Barry Koch was in plain clothes and an unmarked car, watching a house suspected of hosting drug trafficking. He saw a Chevrolet Monte Carlo drive away from the house. He followed the Monte Carlo because he had heard from another officer that people involved in drug trafficking at the house might be riding in a Monte Carlo. This Monte Carlo's license-plate number did not match the information he had received, but Koch ran a registration check. He learned that the Monte Carlo's registration had been revoked and that it was registered to Rohde, whose driver's license had also been revoked. He also learned that Rohde had been arrested previously and police had found a handgun and drugs in her purse. From what Koch could see, the driver of the Monte Carlo matched Rohde's description in the records.

Koch called Blaine Police Officer Albert Champagne, who was in uniform and on patrol in a marked squad car nearby, and asked him to stop the Monte Carlo. Koch followed the Monte Carlo for about 4 miles while Champagne was en route. When Champagne arrived, he ran the Monte Carlo's license-plate number to verify what Koch had told him about the registration and the revoked status of Rohde's license. He also confirmed that the driver matched Rohde's description. After observing a signaling violation by the Monte Carlo, he stopped the vehicle. The Monte Carlo pulled over to the side of a residential street and was not interfering with traffic, blocking access to any property, or otherwise violating any parking rules.

Champagne approached the Monte Carlo and identified the driver as Rohde. He told her that he had stopped her because of the signaling violation and the revoked status of her license and registration. When Champagne asked for proof of insurance, Rohde indicated that the car was not insured.

Champagne decided to tow and impound the Monte Carlo, based on a Blaine Police Department policy requiring impoundment of uninsured vehicles stopped on a public road. He asked Rohde to get out of the car, and Rohde asked if she was under arrest. Champagne secured her in his squad car and explained that she was “technically” under arrest, by which he meant that she was not free to leave at the moment. Despite telling Rohde that she was “technically” under arrest, Champagne did not plan to take her to jail. Instead, he allowed her to call her mother to attempt to arrange a ride.

Koch arrived while Champagne was talking to Rohde. Champagne asked Koch to assist him in conducting an inventory search, which the department policy required for all impounded vehicles.

Koch found two small bags of methamphetamine and two glass pipes in a purse on the passenger seat of the Monte Carlo. Rohde was charged with fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance under Minn.Stat. § 152.025, subd. 2(a)(1), and possession of drug paraphernalia under Minn.Stat. § 152.092.

Rohde requested an omnibus hearing and moved to suppress the evidence that Koch had found in the Monte Carlo. She stipulated that the initial stop by Champagne was lawful but argued that the search violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution, because the police were not authorized to impound the Monte Carlo and the inventory search itself was pretextual. The district court denied Rohde's motion. Rohde and the State then agreed to a stipulated-facts trial. The district court found Rohde guilty on both counts.

Rohde appealed, the court of appeals affirmed, Rohde, 839 N.W.2d at 766, and we granted Rohde's petition for review. Because we hold that the impoundment was unreasonable, and therefore the resulting inventory search was unconstitutional, we reverse and remand to the district court.

I.

The U.S. Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution forbid “unreasonable searches and seizures.” U.S. Const. amend. IV; Minn. Const. art. I, § 10; see also Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961) (holding that the Fourth Amendment applies to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment). The language of the two constitutional provisions is nearly identical, and we have not held that Article I, Section 10, of the Minnesota Constitution is more protective than the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the context of inventory searches. See State v. Carter, 596 N.W.2d 654, 658 (Minn.1999). Because Rohde does not argue that the Minnesota Constitution is more protective, we need not consider whether the Minnesota Constitution provides a separate basis for relief here.

Evidence obtained from an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment is inadmissible. Mapp, 367 U.S. at 655, 81 S.Ct. 1684. The basic question presented by this case, therefore, is whether the district court should have suppressed the evidence that Koch found when searching Rohde's Monte Carlo because the search was unreasonable and thus unconstitutional. Neither party disputes the facts underlying the district court's refusal to suppress the evidence, so the constitutionality of the search presents a pure question of law that we review de novo. See State v. Ture, 632 N.W.2d 621, 627 (Minn.2001); see also State v. Othoudt, 482 N.W.2d 218, 221 (Minn.1992) (“[T]he reviewing court may independently review the facts and determine, as a matter of law, whether the evidence need be suppressed.”).

Generally, a search conducted without a warrant is “per se unreasonable.” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). In this case, the police did not have a warrant to search ¹ the Monte Carlo, so the search was unreasonable—and thus the evidence was inadmissible—unless the general warrant requirement does not apply. The State argues that the impoundment was proper and therefore the search was an inventory search, which is “a well-defined exception to the warrant requirement.” Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 371, 107 S.Ct. 738, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987). The State bears the burden of showing that such an exception applies in a particular case. State v. Gauster, 752 N.W.2d 496, 502 (Minn.2008) (citing Ture, 632 N.W.2d at 627).

In determining whether an inventory search was reasonable, the administrative and caretaking purposes that justify inventory searches only arise because the police have taken custody of some piece of property. See State v. Goodrich, 256 N.W.2d 506, 510 (Minn.1977). Accordingly, the underlying impoundment must be the first part of the analysis of whether an inventory search was reasonable; if the impoundment was unreasonable, then the resulting search was also unreasonable. See Gauster, 752 N.W.2d at 502 (“[T]he threshold inquiry when determining the reasonableness of an inventory search is whether the impoundment of the vehicle was proper.”). We must determine as a threshold matter whether the officers had any authority or purpose that justified the impoundment.

II.

In order for an impoundment to be proper, the State “must have an interest in impoundment that outweighs the individual's Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.” Id. at 502. The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that the police, in the interests of public safety, have the authority to “remove from the streets vehicles impeding traffic or threatening public safety and convenience.” South Dakota v. Opperman, 428 U.S. 364, 369, 96 S.Ct. 3092, 49 L.Ed.2d 1000 (1976). Additionally, police may impound a vehicle to “protect[ ] the [defendant's] property from theft and the police from claims arising therefrom.” Goodrich, 256 N.W.2d at 511. Here, the State has not met its burden of proving that the State's interest in impounding the vehicle outweighed Rohde's Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure.

The State attempts to address the reasonableness of impounding the Monte Carlo by arguing that impoundment was authorized by statute because the car's registration had been revoked and its insurance had expired. The court of appeals took a similar approach. See Rohde, 839 N.W.2d at 763–65 (“[T]he impoundment of the vehicle was lawful because the vehicle could not remain on the public roadway with revoked license plates and without insurance.”). But this focus on whether the impoundment was authorized by Minnesota law is misplaced,...