People v. Bloyd

331 N.W.2d 447, 416 Mich. 538
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1982
Docket64883, (Calendar No. 13)
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 331 N.W.2d 447 (People v. Bloyd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Bloyd, 331 N.W.2d 447, 416 Mich. 538 (Mich. 1982).

Opinions

Fitzgerald, C.J.,

Kavanagh, J., and Levin, J. This opinion was written by Justice Blair Moody, Jr., prior to his death on November 26, 1982. We concur in this opinion and adopt it as our own.

We are faced with the seizure, detention, and transportation of a person in a police car at a time when the officers were without probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed and without probable cause to believe that the person had committed a crime.

We hold that under the facts of this case, a person may not be seized, detained, and questioned, and then transported in a police car from one place to another in the absence of probable cause to arrest. US Const, Am IV; Const 1963, art 1, § 11. Furthermore, after examining and balancing the character of the intrusion on the personal security of the person detained with the law enforcement interest allegedly justifying such an intrusion, we hold that the detention in this case violated the defendant’s constitutional right to be secure against an unreasonable seizure of his person. US Const, Am IV; Const 1963, art 1, § 11.

I

On August 6, 1978, at approximately 4:50 a.m., an Inkster police officer on routine patrol observed the defendant pull out of the supply yard of the [541]*541Ernst Fuel and Supply Company. According to the officer, the company was closed at that time.

The officer, who was alone, called a second officer on the radio when he first observed the defendant. The officer’s suspicions were aroused, and he stopped defendant’s car to investigate what the driver was doing on the company’s property at that time. There is no indication in the record that the defendant had committed a traffic offense, that the property was posted against trespassing, that the property was enclosed by a fence, or that there had been any reports of criminal activity in the area.

When the defendant stopped his car, he jumped out and ran back to the officer’s patrol car. He presented the officer with his wallet when asked for his license. The officer checked his license and asked him to have a seat in defendant’s automobile. The officer requested this action because it had "been my experience when people jump out of the car and run back to meet you, especially late at night, there is something they don’t want you to see in their car”.

Defendant was asked what he was doing and where he was coming from. He responded that he was changing a tire on the company’s property. The officer checked the tires and noted that they were all uniformly covered with dust and dirt and that none of them appeared to have been changed. The officer noted that the defendant was extremely nervous and perspiring. At this time the officer looked into defendant’s car and observed a pair of white cotton gloves, a flashlight, and a screwdriver in the front area of the automobile, and a pry bar and three somewhat transparent plastic bags con[542]*542taining magazines and boxes of "x-rated movies” on the rear seat.

A second officer arrived at the scene in response to the radio call. Defendant was advised of his constitutional rights.1 After defendant indicated that he understood these rights, he was asked where all the movies came from. He declined to give a substantive answer. The defendant was then placed in the back of the first officer’s patrol car. The bags of magazines and books, along with the other items, were also placed in the police car. The defendant’s car was locked and left where it had been stopped.

The defendant2 was taken in the patrol car to a business establishment that sells "x-rated books”, the Book Shack, to see "if that place had been broken into”. On the way to the Book Shack the officer asked the police dispatcher "to call ADT and see how the alarm was” at the Book Shack. The defendant was detained three or four minutes in the patrol car at the Book Shack while the building was checked to see if there were signs of a break-in. There had been no break-in.

Defendant was then driven to the Melody The-atre. The testifying officer stated that theater showed exclusively "x-rated films”. It was testified that the theater is located on the same side of the street as Ernst Fuel and Supply and there were no [543]*543other businesses between these two places. Initially, the officers did not find any evidence of a break-in at the theater. The defendant was questioned "if he could help us out and tell us where he broke in”. The defendant refused.

The officers continued to investigate and discovered that two outside doors had been removed from their hinges. The two officers entered the building and found a display case to be almost empty. The dispatcher was asked to call the manager who arrived at the theater and confirmed that property was missing.

The defendant was advised that he was under arrest for breaking and entering and driven to the police station. He was charged with breaking and entering. MCL .750.110; MSA 28.305. At the preliminary examination, the defendant argued that the arrest and seizure of property were improper. Defendant was bound over for trial in Wayne Circuit Court. His motion to suppress evidence and to quash the information asserted that he was illegally stopped and that evidence was illegally seized. His challenges were based on the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution3 as well as the Michigan Constitution, art 1, § ll.4 The motion was denied._

[544]*544The Court of Appeals granted defendant’s application for leave to appeal. That Court reversed the denial of his motion. People v Bloyd, 96 Mich App 264; 292 NW2d 546 (1980).

The Court of Appeals held that the initial stop of the defendant’s automobile for questioning was proper. However, it held that the evidence was improperly seized, because there was no probable cause to seize the evidence. Nor was the evidence seized incident to a lawful arrest since the defendant had been improperly arrested, i.e., without probable cause at the time of the seizure, and the items seized as a result of the illegal arrest must be excluded. "At the time of defendant’s arrest, there was no probable cause to link either defendant or the seized items to any particular crime.” 96 Mich App 269.

This Court granted the prosecutor’s application for leave to appeal which argued that detaining the defendant during the investigation by the officers was proper. 409 Mich 897 (1980).5

II

The principal issue before the Court is the permissible scope of a detention based on less than probable cause. The detention in the police car, argues plaintiff, was within the scope of an investigative stop under Terry v Ohio, 392 US 1; 88 S Ct 1868; 20 L Ed 2d 889 (1968), and even if the detention falls outside of the scope of Terry, a [545]*545standard of reasonableness, less than probable cause, is the proper test.

We assume for the purposes of decision of this appeal that the initial stop of defendant’s automobile and the on-the-scene questioning and observations which immediately followed the Terry stop were constitutionally permissible. The subsequent detention, seizure, and transportation of defendant is in issue.

We also note that the prosecutor does not contend that the defendant was not seized.

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

Related

People of Michigan v. Michael David Mier
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2025
People of Michigan v. James Zell Griffin Jr
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2024
Commonwealth v. Revere
888 A.2d 694 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2005)
People v. Goldston
682 N.W.2d 479 (Michigan Supreme Court, 2004)
Commonwealth v. Gonsalves
711 N.E.2d 108 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1999)
People v. Kaufman
577 N.W.2d 466 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1998)
People v. Hellis
536 N.W.2d 587 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1995)
State v. Werner
871 P.2d 971 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1994)
State v. Jones
624 So. 2d 1249 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1993)
State v. Moreno
619 So. 2d 62 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1993)
People v. Chambers
489 N.W.2d 168 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1992)
Commonwealth v. Crowley
556 N.E.2d 1043 (Massachusetts Appeals Court, 1990)
State v. Kavanaugh
434 N.W.2d 36 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1989)
State v. McKissic
415 N.W.2d 341 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1987)
People v. Tanis
396 N.W.2d 544 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1986)
People v. Sundling
395 N.W.2d 308 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1986)
State v. Wheeler
716 P.2d 902 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1986)
People v. Marland
355 N.W.2d 378 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1984)
People v. Bryant
353 N.W.2d 480 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
331 N.W.2d 447, 416 Mich. 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-bloyd-mich-1982.