State v. Schmidt
| Citation | 137 Idaho 301,47 P.3d 1271 |
| Decision Date | 14 May 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 27146.,27146. |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Karen Daily SCHMIDT, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Idaho |
Hutchinson, Lammers Clark, Chtd., Twin Falls, for appellant. Rockne K. Lammers argued.
Hon. Alan G. Lance, Attorney General; Kenneth K. Jorgensen, Deputy Attorney General, Boise, for respondent. Kenneth K. Jorgensen argued.
Karen Daily Schmidt appeals from the district court's appellate decision reversing the magistrate's order suppressing certain evidence seized from a vehicle in which she was a passenger. We reverse the district court's appellate decision and affirm the magistrate's order granting Schmidt's motion to suppress.
At approximately 6:49 p.m. on December 29, 1999, Gooding County Deputy Robert Morgado was on routine patrol, driving southbound on Highway 1950 East, south of Wendell. Morgado noticed a white vehicle parked twenty to thirty feet off on the right side of the road in an unimproved pullout. Believing that the vehicle had perhaps run off the road or had an accident, Morgado stopped to investigate. Morgado parked his patrol vehicle directly in front of the other vehicle and left the headlights on bright. In addition, Morgado's overhead lights were activated and the position of Morgado's patrol vehicle essentially blocked any exit route. Morgado approached the vehicle and as he did so, he noticed the passenger, later identified as Schmidt, trying to hide something either underneath the dashboard or between her legs.
Morgado proceeded to the driver's side of the vehicle to ask the driver if she was okay. When the driver rolled down the window, Morgado detected an odor of what he believed to be marijuana coming from the vehicle. He asked the driver for identification and she provided a valid driver's license. Morgado then walked around to passenger Schmidt's side of the vehicle, opened the door, and asked both the driver and Schmidt to exit the vehicle. After reading the two women their Miranda rights from a card, Morgado asked them if they possessed any marijuana. Schmidt admitted to having a marijuana bud in the ashtray of the vehicle. Morgado then asked the driver for permission to search the car and she agreed. The subsequent search revealed a marijuana bud in the ashtray, a minimal amount of a green leafy substance scattered along the center console, cigarette-rolling papers and Visine eye drops.
Schmidt was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, I.C. § 37-2732(c)(3), and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, I.C. § 37-2734A. Schmidt filed a motion to suppress any statements she made at the scene and evidence seized from the vehicle. After a suppression hearing, the magistrate granted Schmidt's motion to suppress. The state appealed to the district court, and the district court reversed the magistrate's order. Schmidt now appeals, arguing that her initial detention was constitutionally unreasonable.
On review of a decision of the district court, rendered in its appellate capacity, we examine the record of the trial court independently of, but with due regard for, the district court's intermediate appellate decision. State v. Bowman, 124 Idaho 936, 939, 866 P.2d 193, 196 (Ct.App.1993). The standard of review of a suppression motion is bifurcated. When a decision on a motion to suppress is challenged, we accept the trial court's findings of fact which are supported by substantial evidence, but we freely review the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found. State v. Atkinson, 128 Idaho 559, 561, 916 P.2d 1284, 1286 (Ct.App.1996). Here, the magistrate's findings of fact have not been challenged. Thus, we exercise free review in determining whether the police encounter at issue was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
In the proceedings below, the state argued that Schmidt's initial detention was constitutionally reasonable pursuant to Morgado's community caretaking function. However, the magistrate did not view Morgado's conduct as consistent with his community care-taking function. The magistrate concluded that because the vehicle in which Schmidt was a passenger was lawfully parked a safe distance from the road and there was no visible evidence, either from the appearance of the vehicle or the condition of the roadway, that the vehicle had been in an accident, it was unreasonable for Morgado to believe that the occupants of the vehicle were in need of immediate assistance.
On the intermediate appeal to the district court, the district court reversed the magistrate's order. The district court held that under a totality of the circumstances, Morgado had a duty to stop and investigate a vehicle that may have been in an accident. On the present appeal, Schmidt asserts that the district court erred by reversing the magistrate's order granting her motion to suppress because the community caretaking function analysis was not applicable.1
The community caretaking function involves the duty of police to help individuals officers believe are in need of immediate assistance. State v. Mireles, 133 Idaho 690, 692, 991 P.2d 878, 880 (Ct.App.1999). As stated in Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973):
Local police officers, unlike federal officers, frequently investigate vehicle accidents in which there is no claim of criminal liability and engage in what, for want of a better term, may be described as community caretaking functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute.
Id. at 441, 93 S.Ct. at 2528, 37 L.Ed.2d at 714-15.
In analyzing community caretaking function cases, Idaho has adopted a totality of the circumstances test. State v. Wixom, 130 Idaho 752, 754, 947 P.2d 1000, 1002 (1997). The constitutional standard is whether the intrusive action of the police was reasonable in view of all the surrounding circumstances. Id. Reasonableness is determined by balancing the public need and interest furthered by the police conduct against the degree and nature of the intrusion upon the privacy of the...
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