Williamson v. State, No. 61, September Term, 2009 (Md. App. 4/22/2010)
| Decision Date | 22 April 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 61, September Term, 2009.,61, September Term, 2009. |
| Parties | KELROY WILLIAMSON, v. STATE OF MARYLAND. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Opinion by Battaglia, J.
The writers for the NBC television series Law & Order Special Victims Unit would be hard pressed to author an episode full of more issues involving DNA than found in this case in which the Anne Arundel County police, in 2006, matched DNA of the Appellant, Kelroy Williamson, retrieved from his discarded McDonald's cup to the DNA found in two separate rape victims' forensic medical examinations in 1994 and 2002. Williamson was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in 2007 on charges of rape and related offenses1 for the 2002 crime, and he appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, arguing that his arrest warrant for the 2002 rape was based on a statement of probable cause predicated upon the illegal testing of the DNA from the discarded cup and the 1994 forensic examination, as well as the uploading of his DNA profile into a local database and search of that database for a profile match. His challenges are premised in the Maryland DNA Collection Act2 and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,3 and he seeks review of the trial judge's denial of his motion to suppress the obtaining and testing of the 2006 DNA sample and his statement to police as the poisonous fruits of an illegal arrest. We granted certiorari, Williamson v. State, 409 Md. 47, 972 A.2d 861 (2009), prior to any proceedings in the Court of Special Appeals, to consider the following question:
Was it error to deny the motion to suppress evidence obtained in violation of Appellant's statutory and Fourth Amendment rights?
We hold it was not error to deny the motion to suppress the DNA evidence obtained in 2006 or the Appellant's statement to police, and we affirm the Circuit Court judge's dismissal of the motion to suppress.
In setting forth the facts, we adopt a timeline suggested by the State in its brief, although we have provided our own recitation of events:
1994
In an unrelated case, an acquaintance of Williamson told the police that Williamson had raped her. She underwent a forensic medical examination, and vaginal swabs were collected but not tested for the presence of the assailant's deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Williamson was arrested for the offense, but he claimed that the sexual intercourse was consensual. He ultimately entered an Alford plea4 to battery.
Eight years later, a different complainant alleged that she was raped by an unknown assailant. Vaginal swabs containing a DNA sample5 were recovered during her forensic medical examination, and the sample, as tested by the Anne Arundel County Police Crime Lab, yielded a DNA profile of the assailant. The DNA profile was uploaded to the statewide DNA database system,6 thereby creating a DNA record.7 The DNA record was then uploaded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's "Combined DNA Index System" or "CODIS."8 After a search of CODIS revealed no match, the complainant's assailant remained unknown.
After Anne Arundel County Police obtained funding through a private grant to conduct DNA tests in cold cases, they submitted the 1994 vaginal swab collected during the forensic medical examination for testing, along with more than 50 samples from other "cold cases."
One year and four months later, the testing of the 1994 vaginal swab yielded a DNA profile of that assailant.
The Anne Arundel County Police uploaded the DNA profile of the 1994 assailant into CODIS, thereby creating a DNA record.
The Anne Arundel County Police Crime Lab compared the DNA record of the 1994 assailant against the records in CODIS and determined that the 1994 DNA record matched the DNA record of the rape victim's assailant in 2002. Detective Tracy Morgan, an investigator in the Anne Arundel County Sex Offense Division, was informed that Williamson, who pleaded guilty to battery in the 1994 incident, may have been involved in both the 1994 and 2002 incidents.
After Detective Morgan learned that Williamson had an open arrest warrant on unrelated charges, she contacted the Anne Arundel County Police Criminal Unit to arrest him and bring him to the Eastern District Police Station in Pasadena. While Williamson was being arrested, arrangements were being made to secure a meal for him while he was awaiting booking, a procedure followed by the Pasadena precinct. A meal from McDonald's was secured and brought to the Eastern District Police Station where Williamson was held, while awaiting booking. Williamson accepted the meal, and after having finished eating, discarded the wrappers and cup on the floor of the cell. When Williamson left the cell, Detective Morgan entered and retrieved the McDonald's cup and took it to the crime lab to have it tested for DNA. The crime lab tested Williamson's DNA on the cup, which yielded a DNA record matching the DNA record of the 2002 assailant.
Detective Morgan submitted an application for an arrest warrant for the 2002 rape, upon which she predicated probable cause upon the following: (1) the match between the DNA records from the 1994 and 2002 forensic medical examinations, and (2) the match between the DNA records from the 2002 forensic medical examination and the McDonald's cup.9 Williamson was arrested in connection with the 2002 rape and was interviewed at the Eastern District Police Station at which time he confirmed his home address in 2000 and 2001 at a location not far from the 2002 rape scene.
A grand jury indicted Williamson on charges of rape in the first and second degrees, sexual offense in the first and second degrees, unnatural and perverted sexual practice, assault in the first and second degrees, and reckless endangerment, for the 2002 incident.
As one of its pretrial motions, the State filed a Motion to Give Saliva Samples, and the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County ordered Williamson to provide a saliva sample on February 26, 2007. Williamson filed an Emergency Motion for Appropriate Relief, arguing that the Court should rescind or recall its order, because he was challenging and would continue to challenge the testing of his previously acquired samples of DNA and the alleged illegal seizure of his DNA on December 11, 2006. The Court denied Williamson's motion. A DNA sample was collected from Williamson and again yielded a DNA record matching that of the 2002 rape assailant.
Judge Paul A. Hackner held a suppression hearing and denied Williamson's motion to suppress the DNA taken from him in 1994, 2006, and 2007. Judge Hackner based his decision, in part, on the following findings and conclusions regarding the 1994 DNA from the vaginal swab:
The Court finds as follows: The proffers—and I don't think there's any real factual dispute. And that's why there's probably no—there's no need for any evidence on this point. But the facts as I believe are undisputed are that the defendant's 1994 genetic material was collected by the police from the victim of the assault that occurred in 1994. It was not obtained from the defendant. And that's a huge, important distinction between that and all of the issues having to do with the DNA Collection Act.
The material that was deposited on the body or in the body of the victim in the 1994 case was retained by the police department and ultimately was processed, manipulated, if you will, compared to other samples and what have you.
In order for the Court to suppress either that result or anything that flows from it, I would have to conclude that there was a Fourth Amendment violation, which therefore means I would have to find that property was seized from the defendant or obtained from the defendant as a result of an unlawful search or seizure.
And I cannot imagine under what circumstances the Court could come to that conclusion when, by all possible logic, the genetic material that was deposited in the 1994 victim was clearly abandoned. And at that point, there was no longer any expectation of privacy, reasonable or unreasonable for that matter, and certainly not one that society would honor.
And so without there being an expectation of privacy in that material, the defendant long ago lost any right to complain about what was done to it. So to the extent that that implicates his standing to challenge the 1994 sample and any subsequent activity that was involved with it, I find he has no standing.
And to the extent that he might have standing, I find that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Therefore, there is no violation of the Fourth Amendment. And I have not been told, and I don't find in my own readings of the material, that there is any statutory suppression that is appropriate.
So therefore, even if I were to assume for the sake of argument that there was some violation of the DNA Collection Act, I don't find that that's a basis to suppress the 1994 sample and the subsequent match of that 1994 sample to any other known information that the police had.
In addressing the motion to suppress the DNA retrieved from the McDonald's cup in 2006, Judge Hackner stated:
The Constitution, particularly the Fourth Amendment, protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Period. The end. That's what it protects. And in order to have a claim that your Fourth Amendment right has been violated, you have to have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
And in this case, the Court finds that the defendant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in either the cup or the saliva or genetic material that he left on the cup as a result of drinking the soda or whatever it was that was it.
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[T]he Court finds as a factual matter that from the evidence before me there is no reasonable way for the Court to...
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