State v. Wiese, 93-981

• Citation: 525 N.W.2d 412
• Decision Date: 21 December 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-981,93-981
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. James Edward WIESE, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 412

525 N.W.2d 412

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. James Edward WIESE, Appellant.

No. 93-981.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 21, 1994.

Bill Bracker, Council Bluffs, for appellant.

Bonnie J. Campbell, Atty. Gen., Amy M. Anderson, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Bruce E. Swanson, County Atty., for appellee.

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

SNELL, Justice.

James Edward Wiese appeals his conviction for possession of a schedule I controlled substance with intent to deliver and possession of marijuana without the required drug tax stamp. The sole issue in this case is whether the district court erred in denying Wiese's motion to suppress all evidence and statements officials obtained as the result of a police stop of his vehicle. The court of appeals affirmed the district court's decision holding that the officer in question acted with reasonable cause in stopping Wiese's vehicle. On further review, we reverse and remand.

I. Factual Background

At approximately 10:25 p.m. on Saturday, December 19, 1992, Wiese and his brother, Jeff Wiese, were traveling north on County Road M-55, also known as the "country club gravel road." Deputy Irapaul "Butch" Rulla was traveling on the same road behind Wiese performing a routine patrol south and east of Red Oak.

After crossing under an overpass located approximately four-tenths of a mile from the next intersection, Rulla observed the taillights of Wiese's car ahead of him. Rulla observed that Wiese's vehicle was driving "real slow," or roughly five to ten miles-per-hour. Rulla was driving at a rate of thirty-five to forty miles-per-hour in a posted speed limit zone of thirty-five miles-per-hour when he approached Wiese's vehicle.

Rulla caught up to Wiese's car approximately two-tenths of a mile from the intersection. As he approached Wiese's vehicle, Rulla noticed Wiese speed up. Rulla considered the location to be a "high security" or "high watch" area and believed Wiese was acting in a very suspicious manner. Therefore, as the two cars approached the stop sign at the intersection, he decided he would stop Wiese and investigate his presence in the area.

Shortly before the two vehicles came to the stop sign, Rulla radioed the dispatcher in order to acquire a check on the vehicle's license plate. Rulla also turned on his red lights in order to signal the vehicle that it should stop. Rather than remaining at the stop sign, however, Wiese turned west at the intersection onto Highway 34 at a normal rate of speed. Rulla pursued and flashed his floodlight in an effort to get Wiese to stop.

Wiese continued on Highway 34 for approximately an eighth of a mile before he pulled over at the top of a hill near a log house. After the two cars stopped, Wiese exited his vehicle to meet Rulla as he approached but then returned to the driver's seat of the car. Rulla approached the driver's side window and, while conversing with Wiese, noticed a "plastic bag with green material inside" lying on the floor of the car.

Rulla asked Wiese what the material in the bag on the floor was, but Wiese did not look down at it or respond. Rulla then opened the door and asked Wiese to step out, but Wiese instead slammed the door shut and drove away. Rulla ran back to his car, proceeded after Wiese, and subsequently stopped him a short distance away. After stopping the car, Rulla found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in Wiese's vehicle.

Wiese was indicted for: (1) possession of a schedule I controlled substance with intent to deliver in violation of Iowa Code section 204.401 (1991); (2) possession of marijuana without the required drug tax stamp in violation of Iowa Code section 421A.3; and (3) eluding or attempting to elude a pursuing law enforcement vehicle in violation of Iowa Code section 321.279.

Wiese filed a motion to suppress all evidence authorities seized from his vehicle and all statements and observations made pursuant and subsequent to Rulla's stop of his vehicle. Wiese deposed Rulla and the district court held a hearing on the motion to suppress. The district court issued a ruling denying the motion.

Wiese renewed his motion to suppress at the trial. The trial court overruled the motion and, following a stipulated trial in which Wiese preserved his objection to the admission of the controverted evidence, found Wiese guilty of the first two charges.

On appeal, the Iowa Court of Appeals filed an en banc opinion affirming the trial court's determinations. Two judges dissented. We granted Wiese's application for further review.

Wiese now argues that we must reverse his convictions because the trial court erred in admitting evidence collected and statements made pursuant and subsequent to his December 19, 1992 arrest. The focus of his argument is that Deputy Rulla did not have reasonable cause to stop his vehicle.

II. Standard of Review

A challenge to a trial court's ruling on a motion to suppress implicates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. We review constitutional issues de novo. State v. Scott, 518 N.W.2d 347, 349 (Iowa 1994); State v. Riley, 501 N.W.2d 487, 488 (Iowa 1993); State v. Hilleshiem, 291 N.W.2d 314, 316 (Iowa 1980); State v. Aschenbrenner, 289 N.W.2d 618, 619 (Iowa 1980); State v. Post, 286 N.W.2d 195, 199 (Iowa 1979).

III. Constitutional and Legal Principles

The legal principles governing this matter are well-settled. The Fourth Amendment of the federal constitution as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment requires that an officer have reasonable cause to stop a vehicle for investigatory purposes. Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 663, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d 660, 673 (1979); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879-80, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, 906 (1968); Aschenbrenner, 289 N.W.2d at 619; State v. Cooley, 229 N.W.2d 755, 759 (Iowa 1975). In order to establish reasonable cause, the State carries the burden to show that the officer had "specific and articulable cause to support a reasonable belief that criminal activity may have occurred." Aschenbrenner, 289 N.W.2d at 619; see also Prouse, 440 U.S. at 663, 99 S.Ct. at 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d at 673; Terry, 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d at 906; Hilleshiem, 291 N.W.2d at 316; Cooley, 229 N.W.2d at 760. Unparticularized suspicion is not an adequate reason for a stop, but "an officer may make an investigatory stop with 'considerably less than proof of wrongdoing by a preponderance of the evidence.' " State v. Richardson, 501 N.W.2d 495, 496-97 (Iowa 1993) (quoting United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 8, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1, 10 (1989)).

We measure the reasonableness of a stop using an objective standard: "would the facts available to the officer at the moment of the [stop] 'warrant a [person] of reasonable caution in the belief' that the action taken was appropriate?" Terry, 392 U.S. at 21-22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d at 906 (quoting Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 288, 69 L.Ed. 543, 555 (1925)); see also United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621, 628 (1981). We hold officers to their true reason for stopping a vehicle in question and will not allow them to justify a stop with reasons upon which they did not actually act. State v. Rosenstiel, 473 N.W.2d 59, 61 (Iowa 1991); Aschenbrenner, 289 N.W.2d at 619; Cooley, 229 N.W.2d at 757-59. If the State does not carry its burden, the underlying constitutional principles require that we suppress evidence and statements the State acquired as a result of the improper stop. Aschenbrenner, 289 N.W.2d at 619.

Like the constitutional principles at issue, the rationale supporting the suppression of such evidence is also well-settled. We have stated that the essential purpose of the Fourth Amendment search and seizure proscriptions is "to impose a standard of reasonableness upon the exercise of discretion by government officers, including law enforcement officials, in order to safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasions." Hilleshiem, 291 N.W.2d at 316. In Terry, the United States Supreme Court noted:

Anything less [than the above-articulated test] would invite intrusions upon constitutionally guaranteed rights based on nothing more substantial than inarticulate hunches ... And simple good faith on the part of the arresting officer is not enough. If subjective good faith alone were the test, the protections of the Fourth Amendment would evaporate, and the people would be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects only in the discretion of the police.

Terry, 392 U.S. at 22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d at 906 (citations omitted). While we recognize these principles to be of undeniable importance, we also note the enormous problem law enforcement officers face in controlling narcotics as well as the difficulties inherent in the apprehension of drug offenders. People v. Parisi, 393 Mich. 31, 222 N.W.2d 757, 759 (1974). It is our task to properly and effectively manage the "necessar[y] ... conflict between the need to apply realistic standards of law enforcement in such cases and the need to protect citizens from unreasonable intrusions into their privacy." Id.

IV. Analysis

In deposition testimony, Deputy Rulla asserted that his grounds for stopping Wiese's vehicle were: (1) the vehicle's slow rate of speed suggested the occupants may be consuming alcohol; and (2) the vehicle was in a "high watch area." Wiese argues on appeal that the State has not met its burden of demonstrating the stop was reasonable because the mere slow...