Commonwealth v. Brooks

388 S.W.3d 131, 2012 WL 6062752, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 282
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedDecember 7, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-CA-002075-MR
StatusPublished

This text of 388 S.W.3d 131 (Commonwealth v. Brooks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Brooks, 388 S.W.3d 131, 2012 WL 6062752, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 282 (Ky. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

CLAYTON, Judge:

The Commonwealth of Kentucky appeals from the October 14, 2011, order of the Jefferson Circuit Court, which granted the motion of the defendants, Jeremy Brooks and Hope Garland, to suppress evidence of illegal drugs. For the following reasons, we affirm.

On May 24, 2011, Detective Stephen Farmer of the Louisville Metro Police Department received a tip from a confidential informant that Hope Garland was selling narcotics from a home in Louisville, Kentucky. The next day, Detective Farmer conducted surveillance on the home and saw an apparent drug transaction between a female occupant of the home and a passenger in a silver Saturn. The detective followed the Saturn and conducted a traffic stop. The female driver gave him consent to search her purse whereupon Detective Farmer discovered nine hydrocodone pills in it. Both the driver and her husband stated that they purchased the pills from Garland at the home that Detective Farmer had been watching.

Based on this information, Detective Farmer returned to the home with seven other police officers to do a “knock and talk.” When he and his fellow officers arrived at the home, three to five people were on the porch. As the police officers approached the home with their badges showing, an unidentified male ran from the porch into the home. The police officers pursued him into the home. Once the individual who had fled was secured, Detective Farmer received written consent [134]*134from Houchens, the homeowner, to search the home.

During the police officers’ search of the home, the scene was secure and all the persons at the home were sequestered in one location where they could be observed. The police then searched the entire home and found several items in the basement, including a purse which contained eleven hydrocodone, one Xanax, and $451. The purse was searched without a warrant or consent. Garland indicated that it was her purse. At this point, Brooks and Garland were arrested.

In September 2010, the Jefferson County Grand Jury indicted Brooks and Garland on the following charges: second-degree trafficking in a controlled substance (hydrocodone), trafficking in a controlled substance (hydrocodone) within 1,000 yards of a school, illegal use or possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana.

Thereafter, both Appellees made motions to suppress the evidence seized during the search of the residence. A hearing was held on September 1, 2011. On October 14, 2011, the trial court entered its opinion and order wherein it found that the search of the basement, where Brooks and Garland lived, was constitutionally valid but that the search of Garland’s purse was not conducted with a valid exception to the warrant requirement. It is from this order that the Commonwealth appeals.

The Commonwealth contends that the trial court erred in its suppression ruling because the findings of fact about the police officers’ safety did not comport with the substantial evidence presented at the suppression hearing. Further, the Commonwealth maintains that the ruling was incorrect in its application of the law to the facts. In contrast, Brooks and Garland insist that the trial court properly suppressed the evidence obtained in the unconstitutional search of Garland’s purse because substantial evidence did not exist to support the search and that the trial court correctly interpreted the law of search and seizure. In essence, they argue that the search of the purse was unconstitutional.

In Kentucky, for cases involving suppression, we use the standard of review set out by the United States Supreme Court in Ornelas v. U.S., 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). Under that approach, the decision of the circuit court on a motion to suppress, which is based on an alleged illegal search, is subject to a two-part analysis. First, factual findings of the court are conclusive if they are not clearly erroneous and are supported by substantial evidence. Ornelas v. U.S., 517 U.S. at 699, 116 S.Ct. at 1668. See also Commonwealth v. Neal, 84 S.W.3d 920, 923 (Ky.App.2002). Thus, the trial court’s findings of fact will be deemed conclusive if they are supported by substantial evidence. Drake v. Commonwealth, 222 S.W.3d 254, 256 (Ky.App.2007).

Second, we conduct a de novo review of the trial court’s application of the law to the established facts to determine whether its ruling was correct as a matter of law. Welch v. Commonwealth, 149 S.W.3d 407, 409 (Ky.2004). This standard requires no deference on our part to the trial court’s application of the law to the facts found. Cinelli v. Ward, 997 S.W.2d 474, 476 (Ky.App.1998). Using this standard of review, we now address the case before us.

It is axiomatic that absent exigent circumstances, law enforcement officers may not enter an individual’s private residence in order to conduct a warrant-less search. Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 590, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1382, 63 [135]*135L.Ed.2d 639 (1980). As noted, “[i]t is fundamental that all searches without a warrant are unreasonable unless it can be shown that they come within one of the exceptions to the rule that a search must be made pursuant to a valid warrant.” Cook v. Commonwealth, 826 S.W.2d 329, 331 (Ky.1992). Moreover, the Commonwealth bears the burden to demonstrate that exigent circumstances were present justifying a warrantless search. Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 34, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 1972, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970). Hence, in the case at hand, the Commonwealth must establish that the warrantless search of Garland’s purse falls within a recognized exception. Gallman v. Commonwealth, 578 S.W.2d 47, 48 (Ky.1979).

Consent is an established exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Cook, 826 S.W.2d at 331. Here, because the homeowner consented to the search of the home, the trial court found that the police’s search of the home’s basement was lawful. While the Commonwealth does not contest this portion of the decision, it maintains that the trial court’s analysis was flawed in regards to whether the search of the purse in the basement was constitutional.

In its order, the trial court explains that “[tjhere is no evidence that Det. Farmer searched the purse believing it to contain a hidden danger or weapon that Garland could imminently use against him; in fact, Garland was in a separate room when the purse was searched and could not have immediately accessed the purse.” Opinion and Order entered October 14, 2011, at 5. The Commonwealth deems that the trial court’s factual finding that “no evidence” existed to support the police’s position that the rationale for the search was premised on the police officers’ safety is not supported by substantial evidence. We are not persuaded by the Commonwealth’s argument.

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Related

Vale v. Louisiana
399 U.S. 30 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Payton v. New York
445 U.S. 573 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Ornelas v. United States
517 U.S. 690 (Supreme Court, 1996)
United States v. Jackson
598 F.3d 340 (Seventh Circuit, 2010)
Colbert v. Commonwealth
43 S.W.3d 777 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2001)
Commonwealth v. Neal
84 S.W.3d 920 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2002)
Gallman v. Commonwealth
578 S.W.2d 47 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1979)
Welch v. Commonwealth
149 S.W.3d 407 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2004)
Drake v. Commonwealth
222 S.W.3d 254 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2007)
Estep v. Commonwealth
663 S.W.2d 213 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1983)
Cinelli v. Ward
997 S.W.2d 474 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1998)
Cook v. Commonwealth
826 S.W.2d 329 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
388 S.W.3d 131, 2012 WL 6062752, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-brooks-kyctapp-2012.