State v. Watts

• Decision Date: 21 December 2005
• Docket Number: No. 30741.,30741.
• Citation: 127 P.3d 133,142 Idaho 230
• Parties: STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Patricia D. WATTS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

127 P.3d 133

142 Idaho 230

STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Patricia D. WATTS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 30741.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, November 2005 Term.

December 21, 2005.

Molly J. Huskey, State Appellate Public Defender, Boise, for appellant. Jason C. Pintler argued.

Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General, Boise, for respondent Rebekah A. Cudé argued.

SCHROEDER, Chief Justice.

Watts appeals from the district court's denial of her motion to suppress.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A Coeur d'Alene police officer, Greg Moore, pulled over a male driver because he was driving a vehicle with studded tires in July. Patricia Watts was a passenger in the car. Officer Moore arrested the driver for driving without privileges. Another officer, Erik Turrell, asked Watts to get out of the car. After Watts and the driver were out of the car Officer Moore searched Watts' purse, which had been left on the floor of the passenger area. As a result of that search she was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Watts moved to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the search of her purse. The district court denied the motion. Watts entered into a conditional plea in which she pled guilty but reserved her right to appeal the denial of her motion to suppress. The district court allowed the conditional plea.

Watts asserts the district court erred in denying her motion to suppress, contending that the district court made erroneous factual findings and that the search violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The standard of review of a suppression motion is bifurcated. This Court accepts the trial court's findings of fact that are supported by substantial evidence, but freely reviews the application of constitutional principles to the facts as found. State v. Holland, 135 Idaho 159, 161, 15 P.3d 1167, 1169 (2000).

III. THE DISTRICT COURT PROPERLY DENIED THE MOTION TO SUPPRESS

1. The Court will not overrule Charpentier or Holland.

Watts asserts the district court erred in denying her motion to suppress, contending that the district court made erroneous factual findings and that the search violated the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article I, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution. She urges this Court to overrule State v. Charpentier, 131 Idaho 649, 962 P.2d 1033 (1998), and State v. Holland, 135 Idaho 159, 15 P.3d 1167 (2000).

Watts urges this Court to hold that the Idaho Constitution provides greater protection than the rule outlined in New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), in which the United States Supreme Court set forth the following rule regarding the scope of a search incident to arrest:

[W]e hold that when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile. It follows from this conclusion that the police may also examine the contents of any containers found within the passenger compartment, for if the passenger compartment is within reach of the arrestee, so also will containers in it be within his reach. Such a container may, of course, be searched whether it is open or closed, since the justification for the search is not that the arrestee has no privacy interest in the container, but that the lawful custodial arrest justifies the infringement of any privacy interest the arrestee may have.

Belton, 453 U.S. at 460-61, 101 S.Ct. at 2864, 69 L.Ed.2d at 775 (footnotes and internal citations omitted).

The Charpentier decision adopted the Belton rule. In Charpentier, the driver was pulled over for a traffic violation and subsequently arrested for driving without privileges. Charpentier, 131 Idaho at 650-51, 962 P.2d at 1034-35. After Charpentier was handcuffed and placed in the patrol car, the officer searched the car, which resulted in a charge of possession of a controlled substance against Charpentier. Id. at 651, 962 P.2d at 1035. Charpentier moved to suppress the evidence found in her car. This Court held that the Belton rule is the proper interpretation of protections provided by Article I, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution, stating that, "There is nothing in our history or jurisprudence that indicates a contrary result should be reached." Id. at 653, 962 P.2d at 1037.

Watts asks the Court to overrule Charpentier and State v. Holland, 135 Idaho 159, 161, 15 P.3d 1167, 1169 (2000), relying on the dissenting opinion in Charpentier and concurring opinions of Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615, 124 S.Ct. 2127, 158 L.Ed.2d 905 (2004), all of which state that Belton should be limited. "[T]he rule of stare decisis dictates that we follow [controlling precedent], unless it is manifestly wrong, unless it has proven over time to be unjust or unwise, or unless overruling it is necessary to vindicate plain, obvious principles of law and remedy continued injustice." Reyes v. Kit Mfg. Co., 131 Idaho 239, 240, 953 P.2d 989, 990 (1998) (quoting Houghland Farms, Inc. v. Johnson, 119 Idaho 72, 77, 803 P.2d 978, 983 (1990)).

The Court addressed the issue of precedent in Charpentier and held that previous decisions of this Court did not prohibit its decision to adopt the Belton rule. Watts has failed to set forth arguments to demonstrate that Charpentier is "manifestly wrong ... has proven over time to be unjust or unwise, or [that] ... overruling it is necessary to vindicate plain, obvious principles of law and remedy continued injustice," as required by Reyes, 131 Idaho at 240, 953 P.2d at 990, to justify not conforming with controlling precedent. There continues to be "merit in having the same rule of law applicable within the borders of our state, whether an interpretation of the Fourth Amendment or its counterpart—Article I, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution—is involved. Such consistency make sense to the police and the public." Id. at 653, 962 P.2d at 1037.

In State v. Holland, 135 Idaho 159, 15 P.3d 1167 (2000), Holland was a passenger in a car in which the driver was pulled over for a traffic violation. Holland, 135 Idaho at 160, 15 P.3d at 1168. The driver was arrested on a warrant and Holland was asked to get out of the car. Id. When she asked for her purse, the officer searched it before handing it to her and found methamphetamine. Id. Holland was charged with possession of methamphetamine and filed a motion to suppress. Id. The Court rejected her claim that the search exceeded the scope of a search incident to arrest. Id. at 163, 15 P.3d at 1171.

In making its decision in Holland, the Court discussed State v. Newsom, 132 Idaho 698, 979 P.2d 100, which involved a situation where "the passenger's purse was entitled to as much privacy and freedom from search and seizure as the passenger herself." Id. Like the situation in Holland, the driver was pulled over for a traffic violation and subsequently arrested. Newsom, 132 Idaho at 698, 979 P.2d at 100. Unlike Holland, the passenger, Newsom, testified at a suppression hearing that her purse was in her lap at that time, and when she began to get out of the vehicle while holding her purse she was ordered to leave her purse in the vehicle. Id. at 698-99, 979 P.2d at 100-01. The officer was not asked whether he ordered the passenger to leave her purse in the vehicle at the hearing; his only testimony was that when the passenger stepped out of the vehicle, "[s]he didn't have a purse with her. It was inside the car." Id. at 699, 979 P.2d at 101. Newsom was charged with possession of a controlled substance and filed a motion to suppress the methamphetamine found inside her purse. Id. This Court concluded that Newsom was entitled to take her purse with her and was not required by Belton to leave it in the vehicle for the officer to search. Id. at 700, 979 P.2d at 102. The Holland Court discussed that holding, stating that it "does not stand for the proposition that a passenger's belongings may never be searched. Instead, Newsom stands for the proposition that the police cannot create a right to search a container by placing it within the passenger compartment of a car or by ordering someone else to place it there for them." Holland, 135 Idaho at 163, 15 P.3d at 1171.

Watts argues that Holland improperly extends Belton in violation of Article I, § 17 of the Idaho Constitution and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, maintaining that Holland has made the search incident to arrest exception so broad that it now allows officers to conduct broad searches of passenger belongings without any justification. She also contends Holland ignores the reasons set forth in Belton that justify the search incident to arrest exception to the warrant requirement, i.e., officer safety and the preservation of evidence. Watts relies on Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113, 119 S.Ct. 484, 142 L.Ed.2d 492 (1998), for support. However, Knowles is distinguishable. The officer conducted a full search of the car after issuing a citation in a routine traffic stop, not incident to an arrest. Knowles, 525 U.S. at 114, 119 S.Ct. at 486, 142 L.Ed.2d at 496. It appears from the following language that the Knowles Court not only noted this distinction, but also stressed the importance of officer safety during a formal arrest:

We have recognized that the first rationale—officer safety—is "`both legitimate and weighty,'" Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 412, 117 S.Ct. 882, 137 L.Ed.2d 41 (1997) (quoting Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 110, 98 S.Ct. 330, 54 L.Ed.2d 331 (1977) (per curiam)). The threat to officer safety from issuing a traffic citation, however, is a good deal less than in the case of a custodial arrest. In [U.S. v.] Robinson [414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973)], we stated that a custodial...