State v. Ryan
| Decision Date | 22 May 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 61116,61116 |
| Citation | 358 So.2d 1274 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Willie C. RYAN. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Loyola Law School Clinic, Arthur A. Lemann, III, Supervising Atty., Deidre R. Lloyd, Student Practitioner, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
On November 11, 1976 defendant was charged by bill of information with possession of heroin with intent to distribute. After trial by jury, defendant was found guilty of possession of heroin. He was sentenced as a multiple offender to serve twelve years imprisonment at hard labor. Two assignments of error are presented on appeal.
Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying a motion to suppress evidence seized at the time of his arrest.
The evidence adduced at the hearing on the motion to suppress is as follows.
Shortly after noon on November 3, 1976, Officers Earl Johnson and Jacob Johnson of the New Orleans Police Department observed the defendant walking along a sidewalk clutching a yellow object in his hand. The officers were patrolling in an unmarked car and had no information concerning the activities of the defendant. Officer Jacob Johnson testified that as they passed the defendant in their car, it appeared that he was trying to conceal what he was holding by turning his hand away from the street. Their suspicions aroused, the officers circled the block and came upon the defendant still carrying the object, on another street. The testimony of the two officers differed as to the events that followed. Officer Jacob Johnson testified that he jumped out of the car immediately after seeing that the defendant was still carrying the object. Officer Jacob Johnson stated that the defendant threw the object to the ground as soon as he saw the officer leave the car and start in his direction. Officer Jacob Johnson walked past the defendant to retrieve the object while Officer Earl Johnson stopped the defendant. Officer Earl Johnson, on the other hand, testified that the defendant dropped the object before Officer Jacob Johnson jumped out of the car. There was no other testimony about the seizure.
The object was a manila envelope containing approximately fifty heroin capsules.
The defendant argues that the evidence was seized pursuant to an illegal arrest or detention and therefore should have been suppressed. The State argues that the envelope was abandoned without any prior intrusion by the police and therefore the motion to suppress was properly denied.
In State v. Smith, 347 So.2d 1127 (La.1977), we set out the following principles relative to evidence seized pursuant to an investigatory stop:
"The right of the police to make an investigatory stop must be based upon reasonable cause sufficient to cause them to suspect the detainee of past, present, or imminent criminal conduct. State v. Weathers, 320 So.2d 892 (La.1975); State v. Winesberry, 256 La. 523, 237 So.2d 364 (1970). As these decisions note, the reasonable cause must be determined under the facts of each case, by whether the officers had sufficient knowledge of particular circumstances sufficient to permit them to infringe upon that individual's right to be left alone free of government interference with his liberty.
If, however, the officers do not have the right to make an investigatory stop, evidence seized or otherwise obtained as the result thereof cannot constitutionally be admitted into evidence against a criminally accused. State v. Truss, 317 So.2d 177 (La.1975); State v. Finklea, 313 So.2d 224 (La.1975); State v. Jones, 308 So.2d 790 (La.1975); State v. Saia, 302 So.2d 869 (La.1974). This inadmissibility extends to property dropped or abandoned in response to an illegal stop. State v. Lawson, 256 La. 471, 236 So.2d 804 (1970). " 347 So.2d at 1128.
The officers in the present case clearly did not have reasonable cause to stop the defendant when they first saw him carrying the yellow object. They had no knowledge of his participation in criminal activity and the observation that the defendant was carrying an object with his hand turned away from the street falls woefully short of establishing reasonable cause to stop. The question thus presented is whether the evidence was abandoned in response to an illegal stop. Essential to this inquiry is a determination of the point at which the officers' actions infringed upon the defendant's right to be left alone.
In State v. Saia, 302 So.2d 869 (La.1974), two police officers noticed Charlene Saia leave an address known to be an outlet for drugs. When the police car pulled beside Saia as she was walking down the sidewalk, she put her hand inside the waistband of her pants and turned to walk in the other direction. The officers surmised that she was concealing contraband in her pants so they followed her back to the original address. As Saia was walking up to the house, the officers left their car and overtook her from the rear. When they grabbed her near the door of the house she again reached inside her waistband and withdrew what appeared to be a glassine envelope containing heroin. The State argued that the police had probable cause to arrest the defendant and seize the heroin when they saw her take the envelope from her pants. We agreed, but found that was not determinative because the officers had unlawfully intruded upon her freedom of movement before seeing the heroin. The following language is pertinent to the issue at hand in the present case:
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State v. Tucker
...this latter case, there is no expectation of privacy and thus no violation of a person's custodial rights. Chopin, Id.; State v. Ryan, 358 So.2d 1274, 1275 (La.1978). The foregoing standards of police conduct and rules of inadmissibility of unlawfully seized evidence are intended to protect......
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Hawkins v. State, 194-83
...in 1978 again had to decide whether certain evidence was abandoned by an accused in response to an illegal stop. State v. Ryan, 358 So.2d 1274, 1275 (La.1978). The Louisiana court found that the evidence was abandoned before police had intruded on the accused's freedom of movement and since......
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31,737 La.App. 2 Cir. 3/31/99, State v. Mickens
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