State v. Slayton
| Decision Date | 06 November 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 31,244.,31,244. |
| Citation | 2009 NMSC 054,223 P.3d 337 |
| Parties | STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Michael SLAYTON, Defendant-Petitioner. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Gary K. King, Attorney General, Martha Anne Kelly, Assistant Attorney General, Santa Fe, NM, for Respondent.
{1} After rear-ending a vehicle and leaving the scene of the accident, Defendant Michael Slayton was handcuffed in his driveway by a police service aide (PSA), pending the arrival of police officers to investigate Defendant's involvement in the accident. As a result of the investigation, Defendant was charged with aggravated DWI, second offense, contrary to NMSA 1978, Section 66-8-102 (). At trial Defendant sought to suppress all evidence following his detention and arrest because the PSA who detained him was employed as a non-commissioned officer of the Roswell Police Department and did not have the statutory authority to detain or arrest an individual suspected of DWI. Defendant contends that the PSA's lack of statutory authority to detain or arrest him is an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, entitling him to the remedy of suppression. While we agree that the PSA did not have the authority to detain or arrest an individual suspected of a crime, we disagree that a state actor's unauthorized seizure of a person suspected of committing a crime is per se a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Because Defendant has not argued either that the unauthorized seizure violated the New Mexico Constitution or that the Legislature has made suppression the remedy for an unauthorized arrest, we do not address those issues. Finally, we disagree with Defendant's final argument on appeal that his consent to a blood test was coerced. Therefore, we affirm Defendant's conviction.
{2} On the afternoon of January 7, 2007, PSA Ali Blake (Blake) responded to a traffic accident in Roswell, New Mexico. Blake observed that a red vehicle had been rear-ended by a vehicle with white paint, and witnesses at the scene informed her that the driver of a white truck rear-ended the vehicle and left the scene. Blake obtained the license plate of the white truck from a witness and was told in which direction the truck was traveling as it left the scene. Blake located the truck parked in Defendant's driveway with Defendant still inside, either unconscious or asleep.
{3} Blake knocked on the truck's window, awakening Defendant and ordering him to get out of the truck. When Defendant got out of his truck, Blake detected an odor of alcohol coming from him and noticed several boxes of ammunition on the truck's floorboard. Once he was out of the truck, she asked Defendant to get on his knees. Instead of complying, Defendant tried to walk toward his house but tripped and fell, injuring his nose. Citing concerns for both her safety and that of Defendant, Blake handcuffed Defendant and called police officers and medical assistance personnel to the scene.
{4} Roswell Police Officer Scott Stevenson responded to Blake's request for assistance. Upon arriving at Defendant's house, Officer Stevenson approached Defendant, who was sitting on the ground. He noticed that Defendant appeared disoriented or confused, had bloodshot, watery eyes, and slurred speech. Officer Stevenson reported that Defendant admitted he had been drinking vodka "all day" and driving his truck, but he could not remember the crash or why his nose was bleeding. Defendant was taken to the hospital, where Officer Stevenson formally placed him under arrest for DWI. Approximately four hours after the accident, Defendant consented to have his blood drawn to test his blood alcohol content (BAC). His BAC was 0.36 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
{5} Defendant filed three motions to suppress evidence in district court, two of which are the subject of this appeal. He moved the court to suppress all evidence obtained by the police after his detention or arrest because "[t]he arrest and detention of Defendant [were] without proper police authority" and were therefore illegal. He also moved to suppress all evidence relating to the blood alcohol draw because it was taken without Defendant's voluntary consent. The district court denied these two motions. Defendant entered a conditional plea of no contest to aggravated DWI, second offense, a misdemeanor, preserving his right to appeal the "issues surrounding his motions to suppress/unlawful arrest/blood alcohol draw without consent[.]" He then appealed to the Court of Appeals.
{6} In a divided memorandum opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's order denying Defendant's motions to suppress. State v. Slayton, No. 27,892, slip op. at 2 (N.M. Ct.App. June 30, 2008). The majority held that Defendant failed to preserve the issue of Blake's authority to detain him because he had only argued to the district court that Blake was without the authority to arrest him. Id. at 6-7. The Court concluded that Blake's detention of Defendant did not amount to an arrest, and it therefore did not need to address whether Blake had the authority to arrest. Id. at 12. Regarding the issue of Defendant's consent to the blood draw, the Court held that Defendant was not forced to submit to the test, and therefore the blood draw evidence was not subject to suppression. Id. at 12-13.
{7} The dissent concluded that Defendant had preserved the issue of Blake's illegal detention of him. Id. at 17. In any case, the dissenting judge would have held that Defendant was arrested by the PSA, who was not a commissioned police officer. Id. at 22 (Vigil, J., dissenting). Judge Vigil explained that:
The majority's reasoning, with which I disagree, allows it to not address the consequences of an illegal detention or arrest by a PSA officer. I would address the merits of whether Defendant's detention and arrest were legal, and if they were not, the consequence. One consequence might be that Defendant's consent to the blood test was not sufficiently attenuated from PSA Blake's unconstitutional conduct. Without such an analysis, I do not agree with the majority's conclusion concerning Defendant's consent to the blood test.
Id. at 22-23. This Court granted certiorari and now addresses the two suppression issues. State v. Slayton, 2008-NMCERT-008, 145 N.M. 255, 195 P.3d 1267.
{8} The State asserts that Defendant argued only to the district court that Blake was without authority to arrest him, a question separate and distinct from a determination of whether Blake was authorized to detain him. It contends that the district court's order embodied only two rulings: (1) that Blake did not arrest Defendant; and (2) that Defendant's detention was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. According to the State, the absence of the district court's express ruling on Blake's authority to detain Defendant demonstrates Defendant's failure to adequately preserve that argument for consideration below.
{9} Defendant's argument in the district court was that Blake's actions, however characterized, were unreasonable within the context of the Fourth Amendment. He specifically argued that either "the arrest or detention of Defendant" was "illegal," and therefore all evidence obtained after his seizure should be suppressed. In addition to his broad argument that his detention was unreasonable, Defendant also specifically argued that "[t]he arrest and detention of Defendant [were] without proper police authority."
{10} While Defendant's argument could have been clearer, we believe that it was sufficient to invoke a ruling from the district court on the issue of Blake's authority to detain him. See Rule 12-216(A) NMRA (). Defendant focused the district court's attention on the fact that Blake was not a commissioned police officer, and therefore lacked authority to detain or arrest him, making his seizure unreasonable within the context of the Fourth Amendment. Indeed, the district court denied "Defendant's Motion to Suppress based upon an alleged unlawful arrest and detention by police officers[.]" Therefore, we conclude that Defendant did preserve the issue of whether Blake had the authority to detain him and, if not, whether exceeding that authority violated the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable seizure.
{11} "A ruling on a motion to suppress evidence presents a mixed question of law and fact." State v. Rivera, 2008-NMSC-056, ¶ 10, 144 N.M. 836, 192 P.3d 1213. This Court reviews factual findings under a substantial evidence standard, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, and we review de novo whether the district court correctly applied the law to the facts. Id. In this case, the district court made formal findings of fact in its order denying Defendant's motions. Neither party asserts that these findings were made in error, and the pertinent factual findings are supported by the record. We therefore accept these findings as conclusive. Davis v. Devon Energy Corp., 2009-NMSC-048, ¶ 13, 147 N.M. 157, 218 P.3d 75 ().
{12} Defendant's argument that his seizure by Blake was unreasonable within the context of the Fourth Amendment rests entirely on the assertion that Blake lacked the statutory authority to detain or arrest anyone suspected of committing a crime. We believe that Defendant would concede that if a commissioned police officer had seized him, his detention...
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...not establish that his conduct violated the Fourth Amendment”) (citing Moore ); and [747 S.E.2d 670]State v. Slayton, 147 N.M. 340, 342, 223 P.3d 337, 339 (2009) (stating that, “[w]hile we agree that the [police service aide] did not have the authority to detain or arrest an individual susp......