Erickson v. State

507 P.2d 508, 1973 Alas. LEXIS 350
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1973
Docket1521, 1542
StatusPublished
Cited by129 cases

This text of 507 P.2d 508 (Erickson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Erickson v. State, 507 P.2d 508, 1973 Alas. LEXIS 350 (Ala. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

ERWIN, Justice.

I

Appellants Howard Charles Erickson and Malcolm Allen Ericson were convicted in the superior court under an indictment charging them with possession of marijuana and LSD for the purpose of sale. In addition, Allen Ericson was separately convicted in the district court under a criminal complaint charging simple possession of marijuana; the misdemeanor conviction was affirmed on appeal to the superior court. 1 A claim of unlawful search and seizure provides the single basis for challenge to the validity of the convictions in this consolidated appeal.

II

On the evening of Friday, April 3, 1970 Mr. and Mrs. David Baldwin were having dinner with Miss Mary Lynn Kennedy, a neighbor. At approximately 8:30 that evening appellant Allen Ericson arrived seeking Miss Kennedy’s roommate, who was away however. The Baldwins invited Allen to join them. During the course of conversation, Allen stated that he had come to Fairbanks from Seattle to sell marijuana. Allen also used the Baldwins’ telephone to call an unidentified person in Seattle, informing the latter that there were “plenty of jobs” in Fairbanks; after the call, Allen explained that the reference to employment opportunities was a prearranged signal for the other person to come to Fairbanks with drugs.

At approximately midnight that same evening Mr. Baldwin contacted the Fairbanks police department and related the above events to Detective Gustafson. The officer requested that Mr. Baldwin obtain a physical description of the person coming from Seattle and an estimate of the quantity of drugs being brought. 2

Mr. Baldwin saw appellant Howard Erickson for the first time Sunday morning, April 5, 1970, in Miss Kennedy’s apartment. At that time Allen and Howard were placing portions of three brick-like substances composed of brownish-green straw material into small baggies. The three bricks were in an open suitcase. Later that day, Mr. Baldwin called Detective Gustafson and related his earlier observations of appellants’ packaging activities. Mr. Baldwin then agreed to come to the police station in order to execute an affidavit for a search warrant for Miss Kennedy’s apartment.

Before departing, Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin informed Miss Kennedy that the police knew about the drugs and were going to search her apartment. Despite their assurance that she would not be arrested, Miss Kennedy became extremely upset and ran outdoors. The Baldwins followed in order to calm her, and Miss Kennedy returned to her apartment. Fearing that she would de *512 stroy or conceal the drugs, Mr. Baldwin followed Miss Kennedy. He observed Miss Kennedy take the suitcase outside and deposit it in a small ditch behind their building, covering it with snow and sticks. Mr. Baldwin, again fearing destruction or concealment of the drugs when Allen and Howard returned, retrieved the suitcase and delivered it to the police station at approximately 7:00 p. m.

The locked suitcase was subsequently pried open by Detective Gustafson, without authorization of a search warrant, in the presence of two other police officers, a district attorney, and a district court judge. 3 After a field test of the substance found inside the suitcase indicated marijuana, 4 appellants were arrested. A subsequent strip search of Allen yielded a small quantity of marijuana on his person which provided the basis for the misdemeanor charge.

At the preliminary hearing on the felony charges the district court judge denied a motion to suppress. The judge first reasoned that no fourth amendment search and seizure occurred prior to the forcible opening of the suitcase at the police station because neither Miss Kennedy nor Mr. Baldwin were acting as agents of the police. Nor was the forcible opening at the police station considered a prohibited search, since:

Baldwin knew what was in it- — or thought he did. He thought correctly, so that when he authorized the opening of the bag after he — at the police station, he was not authorizing a search, he’d already made the search, he was just authorizing (indiscernible) saying, sure you look at it too, I already have.

The thought seems to be that abundant probable cause negates the need for a search warrant. The judge concluded the oral ruling with an “empty formality” discussion :

. I don’t think the constitution or rule 37 . are intended to be directed to empty formalities .... There was nobody’s house and/or grounds to be entered into, there was no need to — to talk to anyone else, there was no need to show the right for authority or to preserve peace at the time the — the suitcase was opened to look at its contents. ... So far as the privacy is concerned . . . defendant’s themselves had already voluntarily surrendered that by showing the contents of the suitcase to both Baldwin and Miss Kennedy. To prepare a warrant would have been empty formality, made to work at a typewriter . . . , 5

The judge who presided at the felony trial denied a second motion to suppress on the sole ground that “city police officers did not take any part or contrivance in the observance or the acquisition of the suitcase involved. . . .”

A suppression motion made to the district court trying the misdemeanor charge was denied, 6 the judge stating simply, “The court finds the search and seizure of the subject suitcase was not unreasonable within the meaning of the constitution of the *513 United States or the constitution of the State of Alaska. . .

In the appeal of the misdemeanor conviction to the superior court, the suitcase search was again found to be constitutional. The judge first noted that the initial seizure of the suitcase was without the knowledge or contrivance of the police and therefore constitutionally permissible. Secondly, he did not consider the warrantless opening of the suitcase by the police to have been impermissible:

Once taken, it did not constitute a constitutionally protected area. Further, the police action in opening the suitcase once it was at the police station was not such as to fall within that area for which the courts have devised prophylactic legislation against abusive police tactics.

The main issue presented in this consolidated appeal is whether the warrantless search of the suitcase violated appellants’ constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, a subsidiary issue is posed by Allen Ericson’s appeal from his misdemeanor conviction: assuming the suitcase search to be unlawful, did that illegality taint the subsequent arrest and, thereby, the marijuana found during the search incident to that arrest ?

Ill

The fourth amendment to the federal constitution states:

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Bluebook (online)
507 P.2d 508, 1973 Alas. LEXIS 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/erickson-v-state-alaska-1973.