JMA v. State

542 P.2d 170
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 5, 1975
Docket2391
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 542 P.2d 170 (JMA 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
JMA v. State, 542 P.2d 170 (Ala. 1975).

Opinion

542 P.2d 170 (1975)

In the Matter of J.M.A., a child, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Alaska, Appellee.

No. 2391.

Supreme Court of Alaska.

November 5, 1975.

*171 Douglas A. Fox, Asst. Public Defender, Herbert D. Soll, Public Defender, Anchorage, for appellant.

James L. Hanley, Asst. Atty. Gen., Avrum M. Gross, Atty. Gen., Juneau, Joseph D. Balfe, Dist. Atty., Anchorage, for appellee.

Before RABINOWITZ, Chief Justice, and CONNOR, ERWIN, and BOOCHEVER, Justices.

OPINION

BOOCHEVER, Justice.

On this appeal, we are presented with the novel question of whether foster parents are to be considered agents of the *172 state for purposes of the constitutional proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures. Appellant J.M.A. also raises issues concerning the constitutional guarantee against self-incrimination involved in a failure to give a Miranda warning before interrogation, and the constitutional guarantee of due process of law, as applied to the judge's review of J.M.A.'s juvenile record prior to the adjudication of his case.

In May 1974, appellant J.M.A. was placed in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Blankenship as a foster child. The Blankenships were licensed by the State of Alaska to operate a foster home for as many as five children. For their efforts in this regard, they received a monthly allowance from the state of $233.00 for each child so housed.

In early August 1974, Mrs. Blankenship became concerned with the fact that children who were strangers to her were coming into her home, staying briefly and departing. She suspected that these visits were related to trafficking in drugs. As a result of these suspicions, Mrs. Blankenship began periodically searching J.M.A.'s room during the first week of August. On August 8, 1974, Mrs. Blankenship listened on another extension to one of J.M.A.'s telephone calls without his knowledge or permission. During the course of this conversation, she heard J.M.A. tell the other party he had only a little pot left and needed to pick up some more plus some pills. Mrs. Blankenship again searched J.M.A.'s room and discovered no drugs, although earlier that day she had found and confiscated a pipe. During the evening of August 8, Mrs. Blankenship returned to J.M.A.'s room and searched a jacket she saw lying on the bed. Discovering a plastic bag of marijuana in one of the pockets, she removed the bag and placed it in her purse. No mention of the discovery was made to J.M.A. that day.

The next day Mrs. Blankenship called Jerry Shriner, the social worker assigned to J.M.A., seeking advice on how to deal with the problem. Mr. Shriner advised Mrs. Blankenship to place the marijuana in an envelope for safekeeping and assured her that he would visit her home in the afternoon. Mr. Shriner then called the Alaska State Troopers, and later on the same day, Mr. Shriner and a plainclothesman went to the Blankenship residence. J.M.A., who had been asked to stay home, was called into the living room where he was confronted by Mr. Shriner, Officer Fullerton and Mrs. Blankenship. Mrs. Blankenship then handed the marijuana to Officer Fullerton, who identified it as such and began questioning J.M.A. about it. The officer asked J.M.A. whether the jacket in which the marijuana was found was his jacket. J.M.A. admitted that the jacket was his but denied any knowledge of the marijuana. During the course of the meeting, J.M.A. was never advised of his rights.[1]

*173 J.M.A. was removed from the Blankenship home by Mr. Shriner and Officer Fullerton immediately after this meeting and placed in detention pending consideration of his case by the juvenile court. Counsel for J.M.A. filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of the overheard telephone conversation and the searches of J.M.A.'s room. On October 8, 1974, a hearing on the motion to suppress was held, and on October 29, 1974, Judge Occhipinti issued his decision denying J.M.A.'s motion to suppress the evidence gathered against him. The adjudication hearing was held on October 31, 1974, resulting in a finding of delinquency.[2] The superior court ordered that J.M.A. be committed to the Department of Health and Social Services for an indeterminate period not to extend beyond his nineteenth birthday, and that he be placed in a correctional or detention facility.

J.M.A. now appeals both from the ruling on the motion to suppress and from the adjudication of delinquency. J.M.A. alleges that the trial court erred in failing to suppress evidence obtained by the foster mother's eavesdropping on J.M.A.'s phone call; in failing to suppress evidence obtained through her searches of J.M.A.'s room; in failing to suppress statements made by J.M.A. in response to police questioning conducted without being prefaced by the Miranda warnings; and in considering J.M.A.'s entire juvenile record during the adjudication phase of the delinquency proceedings.

With regard to J.M.A.'s allegation that the lower court erred in failing to suppress the evidence obtained by Mrs. Blankenship through her eavesdropping on J.M.A.'s telephone conversation[3] and her searches of his room, we must determine whether the state and federal constitutional prohibitions[4] against unreasonable searches and seizures apply to a foster parent, licensed and paid by the state, and if so, whether the exclusionary rule, whereby evidence obtained in violation of the constitution is held inadmissible, should apply. Our analysis must initially focus on the question of whether the foster parent stands in such a relationship to the state as to be subject to the constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures. J.M.A. contends that the evidence gathered by Mrs. Blankenship should be suppressed since these warrantless searches were executed while Mrs. Blankenship was acting as an agent of the state, and thus did not comport with constitutional requirements concerning such actions. The state, to the contrary, argues that Mrs. Blankenship, as a foster parent, is not an agent of the state for purposes of the fourth amendment.

Although the constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures have not been specifically limited to state action, there is little doubt but that *174 that was the original intent.[5] We stated in Bell v. State:[6]

A search by a private citizen not acting in conjunction with or at the direction of the police does not violate the constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure.

There is a further limitation on the scope of the fourth amendment in that it does not apply to searches engaged in by governmental officials when such officials act for a private purpose or outside the scope of duties related to law enforcement. Such a limitation involves a question of the capacity in which the state agent acts during the course of the search. In Bell, this court held an airport security officer to be subject to the same fourth amendment standards as a law enforcement officer, reasoning:

The controlling principle does not depend so much upon which department of state government employs the officer, but instead upon the nature of the duties performed and the part the officer may have played in the course of events leading to appellant's arrest and the seizure which followed. His duties were to provide crash and rescue services and to assure physical security in the airport and parking areas. He carried a sidearm.[7]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Doyle v. State
633 P.2d 306 (Court of Appeals of Alaska, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
542 P.2d 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jma-v-state-alaska-1975.