State v. Ziegler
| Decision Date | 03 September 2019 |
| Docket Number | A18-1825 |
| Parties | State of Minnesota, Respondent, v. Scott Lawrance Ziegler, Appellant. |
| Court | Minnesota Court of Appeals |
This opinion will be unpublished and may not be cited except as provided by Minn. Stat. § 480A.08, subd. 3 (2018).
Affirmed
Beltrami County District Court
Keith Ellison, Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and
David L. Hanson, Beltrami County Attorney, David P. Frank, Chief Assistant County Attorney, Bemidji, Minnesota (for respondent)
Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Rochelle R. Winn, Assistant Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)
Considered and decided by Smith, Tracy M., Presiding Judge; Reyes, Judge; and Florey, Judge.
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
Appellant argues that he was arrested by Red Lake police officers and, because Red Lake police officers are not "peace officers" under Minnesota law, the district court erred by failing to conclude that his arrest was unlawful. He maintains that, because his arrest was unlawful, the evidence must be suppressed and his conviction vacated. We affirm.
In the early morning hours of July 16, 2017, Red Lake Tribal Police Officer Matt Smith (Officer Smith) received a report of a reckless driver within the Red Lake Reservation. Officer Smith responded to the reported location and found a vehicle that had driven off the road into a ditch near Ponemah. Officer Smith observed tracks showing where the vehicle had driven off the road. The tracks indicated that, prior to landing in the ditch, the vehicle had driven through several residential front yards.
Officer Smith approached the vehicle and made contact with the driver, appellant Scott Lawrance Ziegler. A passenger, H.R., was in the vehicle with appellant. Upon making contact with appellant, Officer Smith observed indicia of impairment. He could smell alcohol coming from appellant's breath, he observed that appellant's pupils were dilated and did not respond to light, and that appellant was having difficulty answering Officer Smith's questions. Appellant was unable to provide Officer Smith with a driver's license or other form of identification. At approximately 1:00 a.m., after appellant provided Officer Smith with inconsistencies concerning his identity, the officer contacted the Beltrami County Police Department.
Officer Smith spoke with Beltrami County Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Nohre (Deputy Nohre). Officer Smith reported that two non-band members had been involved in a vehicle accident, that the vehicle was in a ditch near Ponemah, and that he was having trouble identifying the driver. Deputy Nohre conducted an electronic search of the driver basedon the information Officer Smith gave to him, and eventually identified the driver as appellant. Deputy Nohre observed, based on photographs of appellant from an online social media account, that "over time it appeared he had lost a large amount of weight and his checks [sic] were sunken in his more recent photos." Officer Smith advised Deputy Nohre that appellant had denied usage of any controlled substances, that appellant had a revoked driver's license, and that he would be contacting Deputy Nohre again once he determined how he was going to retrieve appellant's vehicle from the ditch.
Appellant informed Officer Smith that he was unable to locate anyone to come assist with retrieving his vehicle from the ditch and told the officer that he could not afford the services of a towing company. Officer Smith contacted an on-call conservation officer who had a four-wheel-drive truck and a tow strap to come help pull appellant's vehicle from the ditch. Approximately 30 minutes later, the conservation officer arrived at their location. During the process of pulling appellant's vehicle from the ditch, Officer Smith observed alcohol in plain view in the vehicle. Officer Smith advised appellant that alcohol was not permitted on the reservation.
Officer Smith contacted Deputy Nohre again. He informed Deputy Nohre that appellant's vehicle was pulled out of the ditch and that appellant admitted to using methamphetamine. Because, as he later testified, he felt that "[appellant] was a direct threat to the safety of other people due to his impairment," Officer Smith stated to Deputy Nohre that he would escort appellant and the passenger to the reservation border.
H.R., who provided Officer Smith with a valid driver's license, drove appellant's vehicle while appellant rode in the car as a passenger. They drove behind Officer Smith.Before reaching the reservation line, however, appellant's vehicle ran out of gas. Officer Smith called for another officer to assist him, parked his car behind appellant's vehicle, and activated the patrol car's emergency lights while waiting for a tow truck to assist. Officer Smith contacted Deputy Nohre again. He was advised by the deputy to transport appellant and H.R. to the reservation line where Deputy Nohre could conduct a DWI investigation.
Red Lake Tribal Police Officer Josh Wicker (Officer Wicker) responded to Officer Smith's call for assistance. With appellant in his squad car's backseat, Officer Wicker escorted him and H.R. to the reservation line. Appellant was informed that Beltrami County Sheriff's Department would be meeting him at the border. Deputy Nohre met Officer Wicker at the reservation line and informed appellant that he wanted appellant to perform field sobriety testing.
Appellant consented to the tests. After completion of the tests, and suspecting that appellant had been driving while impaired, Deputy Nohre arrested appellant and transported him to the Beltrami County Jail where appellant was held pending charges and retrieval of a blood-draw search warrant. The blood sample, taken pursuant to a judicially authorized warrant and submitted to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, confirmed that appellant had methamphetamine in his system. The Beltrami County Attorney's Office charged appellant with two criminal counts: (1) third-degree driving while impaired (DWI) and (2) driving after revocation.
Appellant filed a suppression motion. He alleged that his arrest "was unlawful because the Red Lake arresting peace officer was not a peace officer as defined" by statute.He, thereafter, filed an amended suppression motion, adding an additional allegation: that Officer Smith "unlawfully expanded the duration and scope of the stop without independent reasonable, articulable suspicion of illegal activity."
A contested omnibus hearing was held on appellant's motion. Officer Smith, Deputy Nohre, and appellant all testified at the hearing. Officer Smith denied that his actions amounted to an arrest. He testified that appellant "was being detained during [his] investigation," but that "[a]t no time did [he] place [appellant] in handcuffs or place him into a car." Officer Smith testified that, after appellant's vehicle ran out of gas while driving toward the reservation line, appellant and H.R. "were then put into the back of a squad car of their own free will because . . . they had no way to get a ride, they were not placed under arrest and they were escorted to the line and given a ride by Officer Wicker." He testified, "They were, also, told they would have to deal with Beltrami County when they got to the line because [of] their safety, we cannot just drop them at the line at 3:00 in the morning."
Deputy Nohre testified to his involvement in the incident. He testified that the social-media photos he viewed of appellant while assisting Officer Smith in identifying the suspect driver were "indicative of [a] person who uses methamphetamine." He testified that appellant admitted to using, two days prior to the incident, methamphetamine, that he conducted field sobriety tests as part of his DWI investigation, and that he, ultimately, arrested appellant on suspicion of driving while impaired.
Appellant testified that, upon being placed in the Red Lake tribal officer's patrol car, he did not feel free to leave. He testified that, after his "car ran out of gas on a dirtroad," Officer Smith instructed him "to get in the back of the [squad] car." Appellant explained, He testified that, once they arrived at the reservation line, he waited in the vehicle for a "couple of minutes . . . just until the other officer showed up." He affirmed that Red Lake officers had not placed him in handcuffs and conceded to having, at the time of the incident, methamphetamine in his system. The district court denied appellant's motion in its entirety, finding that "there was not an arrest here by Red Lake Officers."
Appellant waived his right to a jury trial, stipulated to the state's evidence, and agreed that his right to appeal would be limited to the district court's ruling on the pretrial suppression motion and that the pretrial motion was dispositive of the case. See Minn. R. Crim. P. 26.01, subd. 4. The district court found appellant guilty of driving while impaired and driving after revocation. This appeal follows.1
Appellant argues that, because the conduct of the Red Lake tribal police officers amounted to an unlawful arrest, it was error for the district court to deny his suppression motion.
"When reviewing pretrial orders on motions to suppress evidence, we review the district court's factual findings under a clearly erroneous standard and the district court's legal determinations de novo." State v. Jordan, 742 N.W.2d 149, 152 (Minn. 2007). Because appellant stipulated to the prosecution's evidence pursuant to rule 26.01, subdivision 4, "our review is further limited to the pretrial order that denied [appellant's] motion to suppress." State v. Ortega, 770 N.W.2d 145, 149 (Minn. 2009).
Under section 169A.40 of Minnesota's impaired-driving code, a "peace officer" may arrest a person if there is probable cause that the person has committed a...
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