A.C.C. v. State

2000 UT App 120, 2 P.3d 464, 394 Utah Adv. Rep. 8, 2000 Utah App. LEXIS 43
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedMay 4, 2000
DocketNo. 990012-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2000 UT App 120 (A.C.C. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A.C.C. v. State, 2000 UT App 120, 2 P.3d 464, 394 Utah Adv. Rep. 8, 2000 Utah App. LEXIS 43 (Utah Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

OPINION

GREENWOOD, Presiding Judge:

11 A.C.C. appeals the juvenile court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained when his probation officer searched his backpack and found drug paraphernalia. AC.C. argues the juvenile court erred in holding that juvenile probation officers do not need reasonable suspicion before conducting warrantless searches of their probationers. We reverse and remand.

BACKGROUND

12 The search at issue in this case occurred on September 21, 1998, and was conducted by Officer Wyatt Stanworth who had been A.C.C.'s probation officer for a little over a year. Prior to this incident, A.0.C. had three adjudications related to marijuana use and had admitted he was addicted to marijuana.

113 About a month before the search, Officer Stanworth tested A.C.C. for marijuana use. The urine screen gave a positive result for marijuana that was verified by a lab test. Three weeks later, another test was conducted with a borderline result. Officer Stan-worth, however, called it clean because he felt traces of marijuana from the previous positive test may have lingered in A.C.C.'s system.

T4 Officer Stanworth's September 21st visit was prompted in large part by a phone call from A.C.C.'s mother. According to Officer Stanworth, A.C.C.'s mother is "exceptionally good at complying with the probation order and reporting concerns or violations." On September 17th or 18th, A.C.C.'s mother called Officer Stanworth stating she was concerned that A.C.C. was hiding marijuana in his car because he had tested positive the month before and she had not found any marijuana in his usual hiding places in the house.

15 On the 21st, Officer Stanworth arrived at A.C.C.'s house at approximately 6:30 p.m. and saw A.C.C.'s car parked in the driveway with his black backpack on the backseat. In past visits with A.C.C. at the probation office, Officer Stanworth had searched the backpack, but never found anything illegal. After visiting with A.C.C. and his mother for a few moments, Officer Stanworth told A.C.C. he was there to search his room and his car. A.C.C. stated he was not feeling well. When Officer Stanworth opened the door of A.C.C.s car, he smelled a strong odor and asked A.C.C. what he had been smoking. AC.C. stated he had been smoking cigarettes to try to get off marijuana.

16 Officer Stanworth proceeded to search the car. As he searched, he noticed the smell was stronger towards the back of the car. Because A.C.C. had told him he was not feeling well, Officer Stanworth took the backpack from the car and told him they would search it in the house. Officer Stanworth testified the smell was "obviously emanating from the backpack."

I 7 When they got inside the house, Officer Stanworth asked A.C.C. if he would find anything in the backpack. A.C.C. answered "no." When he unzipped the large pouch of the backpack, Officer Stanworth found an [466]*466eight-inch bong 1 that had been used recently.

T8 Officer Stanworth filed both delinquency and probation violation charges against AC.C. as a result of finding the bong. A.C.C. filed a motion to suppress, asserting that the bong had been seized in violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 14 of the Utah Constitution. The juvenile court conducted a hearing on the motion to suppress and denied the motion, stating that juvenile probation officers do not need reasonable suspicion to search their probationers because juvenile probationers do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This appeal followed.

ISSUES AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

T9 This appeal presents the following issues: (1) does the exclusionary rule apply to juvenile proceedings; (2) are juvenile probationers entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy; and (8) if so, did Officer Stan-worth have reasonable suspicion to conduct the search of A.C.C.'s car and backpack. The applicability of the exclusionary rule to juvenile court proceedings and whether juvenile probationers have a reasonable expectation of privacy present questions of law which we review for correctness. See In re A.R., 1999 UT 43, ¶ 10, 982 P.2d 73; State v. Jarman, 1999 UT App 269, ¶ 4, 987 P.2d 1284. A trial court's factual findings underlying its decision to grant or deny a motion to suppress are reviewed under a clearly erroneous standard, and its legal conclusions are reviewed for correctness. See Jarman, 1999 UT App 269 at ¶ 4, 987 P.2d 1284.

ANALYSIS

The Exclusionary Rule

110 Prior to addressing the constitutionality of the search, we must first determine whether the exclusionary rule is applicable to juvenile court proceedings. See In re A.R., 1999 UT 43, ¶ 13, 982 P.2d 73; State v. Jarman, 1999 UT App 269, ¶ 5, 987 P.2d 1284 (noting court need not reach merits of constitutional claim if exclusionary rule is inapplicable).

¶ 11 Relying on Jarman, the State argues that to the extent the hearing involved a revocation of A.C.C.'s probation, the exclusionary rule is clearly not applicable. The State further contends that the hearing was a delinquency proceeding and that the exclusionary rule should not apply because juvenile courts are civil courts designed to rehabilitate rather than punish juvenile offenders.

¶ 12 In Jarman, an adult probationer moved to suppress evidence obtained from a urinalysis conducted by an officer who lacked reasonable suspicion that the probationer had used drugs. See Jarman, 1999 UT App 269 at ¶ 3, 987 P.2d 1284. Relying on Pennsylvamia Bd. of Probation v. Scott, 524 U.S. 357, 367, 118 S.Ct. 2014, 2022, 141 L.Ed.2d 344 (1998) (holding exclusionary rule inapplicable to parole violation proceedings), and In re A.R., 1999 UT 43 at ¶ 20, 982 P.2d 73 (holding exclusionary rule inapplicable to child protection proceedings), we held that the exclusionary rule is not applicable to adult probation proceedings because "the social costs outweigh the benefit of deterrence." Jarman, 1999 UT App 269 at ¶ 7, 987 P.2d 1284. In Scott, the United States Supreme Court stated that "parole officers 'are undoubtedly aware that any unconstitutionally seized evidence that could lead to an indictment could be suppressed in a criminal trial"" Id. at T6 (quoting Scott, 524 U.S. at 369, 118 S.Ct. at 2022). The Court concluded that any deterrence would be marginal as compared to excluding reliable evidence in the narrow area of parole proceedings which would allow parolees to avoid the consequences of their actions. See id. Similarly, we found the Court's reasoning applied equally to probation hearings: "because the acts constituting a probation violation could also give rise to a criminal prosecution, the exclusionary rule's application to eriminal prosecutions already deters unreasonable searches and seizures of probationers." Id. at 1 7.

[467]*467113 We believe that had the suppression hearing solely focused on revoking A.C.C.'s probation, Jarman would likely control, and the exclusionary rule would not apply. It is clear from the record below, however, that the parties and the court addressed the motion to suppress in the context of a juvenile delinquency proceeding rather than a probation revocation hearing.2 Because a juvenile delinquency hearing is more similar to an adult criminal proceeding than to an adult probation proceeding,3

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2000 UT App 120, 2 P.3d 464, 394 Utah Adv. Rep. 8, 2000 Utah App. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/acc-v-state-utahctapp-2000.