State v. Rosenstiel, 90-371

Citation473 N.W.2d 59
Decision Date17 July 1991
Docket NumberNo. 90-371,90-371
PartiesSTATE of Iowa, Appellant, v. Bruce ROSENSTIEL, Appellee.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Bonnie J. Campbell, Atty. Gen., Amy M. Anderson, Asst. Atty. Gen., William McNertney, County Atty., and David C. Skilling, Asst. County Atty., for appellant.

T.J. Braunschweig, Algona, for appellee.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and LARSON, SCHULTZ, NEUMAN, and SNELL, JJ.

NEUMAN, Justice.

The State petitioned for discretionary review after the district court suppressed evidence obtained in a prosecution for operating while intoxicated. We granted the petition and transferred the case to the court of appeals. On a vote of two-to-one, that court affirmed the suppression order. We then granted the State's petition for further review and now vacate the court of appeals opinion, reverse the district court, and remand for further proceedings.

Just before one o'clock in the morning on Saturday, November 11, 1989, police sergeant Dale Briggs was on patrol in the vicinity of the Pasttimes Lounge in Algona. He observed a car with a single occupant drive from one side of the tavern's parking lot to the other. He then saw the driver stop the car and, with headlights on and motor running, extend his arm out the driver's window and pour liquid out of a red and white Budweiser can.

Officer Briggs parked his patrol car behind the vehicle and approached it on foot. The driver of the vehicle, defendant Bruce Rosenstiel, got out of his car and walked towards him. Briggs observed Rosenstiel swaying and detected the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage. Rosenstiel admitted, when asked, that he had been drinking and acknowledged that it was beer he had been pouring out of the can. Several field sobriety tests were administered; Rosenstiel failed all of them. He was then placed under arrest for OWI. See Iowa Code § 321J.2 (1989). A subsequent intoxilyzer test revealed a blood/alcohol level of .235.

Prior to trial on the OWI charge, Rosenstiel moved to suppress all evidence stemming from his encounter with Officer Briggs. The district court sustained the motion on the ground the officer had no reasonable cause to justify an investigatory stop of Rosenstiel's vehicle. It is this ruling, and the court of appeals' affirmance of it, that the State now challenges.

I. It is axiomatic that the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures comes into play only upon a showing that a person's liberty has been restrained by the State through "physical force or show of authority." State v. Harlan, 301 N.W.2d 717, 719 (Iowa 1981) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879 n. 16, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 905 n. 16 (1968)). Thus the State's first argument is that Officer Briggs' initial encounter with Rosenstiel did not amount to a "seizure" warranting analysis of Rosenstiel's rights under federal and state constitutional law. The court of appeals determined that this argument was waived, however, by the State's failure to raise the issue at the suppression hearing. Nor was the issue mentioned in the State's petition for discretionary review.

In its petition for further review to this court, the State concedes its failure to preserve error but urges us to rule that "when a fourth amendment issue arises, the issue of whether the fourth amendment was triggered is obviously a predicate question and thus always preserved." The State cites no authority for this proposition and we are not inclined to embrace it. We have long held that a party who fails to alert the district court to its contentions at trial cannot thereafter rely on those contentions to seek reversal on appeal. State v. Miles, 344 N.W.2d 231, 233 (Iowa 1984); State v. Hansen, 286 N.W.2d 163, 165-66 (Iowa 1979). To hold otherwise would seriously undercut the district court's original jurisdiction. Because the State conceded the propriety of a Terry analysis at trial, it is bound by that record on appeal.

II. Our law is well settled that the police may stop and briefly detain a person for investigative purposes if the officer has "reasonable cause to believe a crime may have occurred." State v. Scott, 409 N.W.2d 465, 468 (Iowa 1987) (emphasis added); State v. Lamp, 322 N.W.2d 48, 51 (Iowa 1982). To meet this reasonable cause standard, the State must tender "specific and articulable" facts supporting the stopping officer's belief that crime may be afoot. Lamp, 322 N.W.2d at 51. The officer is bound by the true reasons given for the stop. Id.; United States v. Jones, 759 F.2d 633, 642 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 837, 106 S.Ct. 113, 88 L.Ed.2d 92 (1985). And although a mere suspicion or "hunch" will not do, the reviewing court may evaluate the stop's validity based on "the totality of the circumstances--the whole picture." United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 8, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1, 10 (1989) (quoting United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417-18, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621, 628-29 (1981)); Jones, 759 F.2d at 642.

The record made at the suppression hearing reveals that Officer Briggs' observation triggered his suspicion of two possible crimes in progress: (1) violation of the open container law, Iowa Code § 123.28 and (2) operating while intoxicated, Iowa Code § 321J.2. Both the district court and the court of appeals focused solely on the open container prohibition. Each court found the record inadequate to support an investigatory stop because the offense prohibits possession of open liquor containers on public streets and highways only. Since Rosenstiel...

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  • State v. Cline
    • United States
    • Iowa Supreme Court
    • September 7, 2000
    ...vehicle is valid). Our prior cases to the contrary are overruled. See State v. Wiese, 525 N.W.2d 412, 415 (Iowa 1994); State v. Rosenstiel, 473 N.W.2d 59, 61 (Iowa 1991); State v. Aschenbrenner, 289 N.W.2d 618, 619 (Iowa 1980). Applying the appropriate legal principles to the case before us......
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    ...can pouring a can of beer out onto the pavement of a tavern parking lot at "a time notorious for drunken driving." State v. Rosenstiel , 473 N.W.2d 59, 62 (Iowa 1991), overruled on other grounds by Cline , 617 N.W.2d at 281. It is unclear under the proposed burden-shifting test when these s......
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    ...and therefore operating, a motor vehicle...."). The OWI statute extends to operating a vehicle on private property. State v. Rosenstiel, 473 N.W.2d 59, 62 (Iowa 1991); State v. Valeu, 257 Iowa 867, 134 N.W.2d 911 (Iowa 1965). Proof of recklessness is not an essential element of operating wh......
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    ...detain a person for investigative purposes if the officer has reasonable cause to believe a crime may have occurred. State v. Rosenstiel, 473 N.W.2d 59, 61 (Iowa 1991). To meet the reasonable cause standard a police officer must be able to articulate something more than an inchoate and unpa......
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