Dawson v. State

868 S.W.2d 363, 1993 WL 458887
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 16, 1994
Docket05-92-02233-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 868 S.W.2d 363 (Dawson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dawson v. State, 868 S.W.2d 363, 1993 WL 458887 (Tex. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

*366 OPINION

CHAPMAN, Justice.

Brenda Lee Dawson was charged by indictment with the offense of possession of a controlled substance. Trial was before the court on appellant’s plea of nolo contendere. The trial court found that the evidence substantiated appellant’s guilt, but deferred further proceedings and sentenced appellant to two years’ deferred adjudication and assessed a fine of $750. In two points of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in admitting hearsay and irrelevant testimony at her suppression hearing, and that the trial court erred in failing to grant her motion to suppress. We reverse and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTS

Appellant worked as a dancer at the Showtime Club, a topless dancing establishment. Officer Robert Reeves of the Dallas Police Department testified that on July 8,1991, he and another officer went to the Showtime Club because the Dallas Police had received an anonymous tip that an unidentified person had narcotics in a locker at the Showtime Club. Officer Reeves told the club manager, Manford Polster, about the information. He asked if Polster would perform a locker search. Polster agreed and conducted a search of all the lockers.

Polster testified that he had worked at the Showtime Club for approximately two months at the time of the search. In July 1991, the police came to Polster and said they had received information that there were drugs on the premises. The police asked Polster if he would perform a locker search. Appellant came into the dressing room from the stage and Polster ordered her to unlock her locker. Appellant removed the lock, and Polster searched her purse and the other contents of her locker in the presence of Officer Reeves and another officer. Pol-ster found methamphetamines in appellant’s purse. Polster said the locker belonged to the Showtime Club.

Polster testified that he had worked with appellant previously at another topless dancing club, and had searched her locker there. He said the reason the lockers were searched was because the topless bar business is drug related, and searches help keep “control.” In all the clubs where Polster worked, dancers’ lockers were searched on a routine basis. He testified appellant had been a dancer in topless clubs for five years. He agreed that the dancers in the clubs where Polster had worked were informed that their lockers were subject to being searched either when they were hired or during certain club meetings. However, he had no personal knowledge of whether appellant had been told that the lockers used by dancers at the Showtime Club were subject to search without notice by the management. He said he had not told her that her locker was subject to search.

Polster testified that the locker was appellant’s private locker for work purposes. He said he ordered her to unlock the locker at the direction of the police. Polster agreed that he was working more or less as an agent of the police. Polster testified that the only reason he searched the locker was because the police asked him to do so.

At the hearing, the following also occurred:

THE COURT: So you went out there because [Polster] asked you to be? This manager wanted to do a locker search, right?
OFFICER REEVES: Yeah.

After this, on cross-examination, Officer Reeves agreed that he went to the Showtime Club because he was dispatched there by the dispatcher. He agreed that he wished to ask the manager to do a locker search for him.

MOTION TO SUPPRESS

1. APPELLANT’S CONTENTION

Appellant contends the evidence obtained from her locker should have been suppressed because it was the product of a warrantless search made even though no exception to the warrant requirement applied. She contends Polster acted as an agent of the police in searching her locker.

2. STATE’S CONTENTION

The State contends that Polster was not acting as an agent of the police in searching *367 the locker, so the Fourth Amendment is not implicated. See Stoker v. State, 788 S.W.2d 1, 11 (Tex.Crim.App.1989), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 951, 111 S.Ct. 371, 112 L.Ed.2d 333 (1990). The State also asserts that Polster was authorized to consent and did consent to the search of appellant’s locker.

3. APPLICABLE LAW

a.Standard of Review— Suppression Hearing

At a suppression hearing, the trial court is the sole trier of fact. The trial court is the judge of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence. See Gibbs v. State, 819 S.W.2d 821, 830-31 (Tex.Crim.App.1991), ce rt. denied, - U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 1205, 117 L.Ed.2d 444 (1992); Segura v. State, 826 S.W.2d 178, 181 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1992, pet. ref'd). We do not engage in our own factual review. We decide whether the record supports the trial court’s findings. If the record supports the trial court’s findings, we are not at liberty to disturb them. We consider only whether the trial court improperly applied the law to the facts. See Romero v. State, 800 S.W.2d 539, 543 (Tex.Crim.App.1990).

The determination of admissibility of the evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court. Jackson v. State, 575 S.W.2d 567, 570 (Tex.Crim.App.1979). The court’s ruling will not be reversed on appeal unless a clear abuse of discretion is shown. See Werner v. State, 711 S.W.2d 639, 643 (Tex.Crim.App.1986).

b.Right to Privacy

The constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures makes the right of privacy one of the unique values of citizenship. May v. State, 780 S.W.2d 866, 869 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1989, pet. ref'd). The Fourth Amendment provides:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

U.S. Const, amend. IV. The security of privacy against arbitrary intrusion by law enforcement is at the core of the Fourth Amendment. May, 780 S.W.2d at 869.

The litmus test for determining the existence of a legitimate expectation of privacy as to a particular accused is twofold: first, did the accused exhibit by his conduct “an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy; and second, if he did, was that subjective expectation ‘one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.’ ” Crosby v. State, 750 S.W.2d 768, 773 (Tex.Crim.App.1987), cert. denied, 486 U.S. 1055, 108 S.Ct. 2821, 100 L.Ed.2d 922 (1988) (quoting Chapa v. State, 729 S.W.2d 723 (Tex.Crim.App.1987)).

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868 S.W.2d 363, 1993 WL 458887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dawson-v-state-texapp-1994.