State of Iowa v. Santos Rene Torres

CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 7, 2023
Docket20-1549
StatusPublished

This text of State of Iowa v. Santos Rene Torres (State of Iowa v. Santos Rene Torres) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Iowa v. Santos Rene Torres, (iowa 2023).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA

No. 20–1549

Submitted October 12, 2022—Filed April 7, 2023

STATE OF IOWA,

Appellee,

vs.

SANTOS RENE TORRES,

Appellant.

On review from the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Warren County, Brendan Greiner

(suppression motion); Kevin Parker (bench trial), District Associate Judges.

Defendant seeks further review of court of appeals decision affirming his

conviction for operating while intoxicated and rejecting his challenge to a

warrantless entry into his home. DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS AND

DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.

Waterman, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which

Christensen, C.J., and Mansfield, Oxley, and McDermott, JJ., joined.

McDonald, J., filed a special concurrence. May, J., took no part in the

consideration or decision of the case.

Benjamin D. Bergmann (argued) of Parrish Kruidenier Dunn Boles Gribble

Gentry Brown & Bergmann L.L.P., Des Moines, for appellant. 2

Brenna Bird, Attorney General, Genevieve Reinkoester (argued), Assistant

Attorney General, for appellee. 3

WATERMAN, Justice.

In State v. Abu Youm, ___ N.W.2d ___ (Iowa 2023), decided today, we

harmonized Caniglia v. Strom, 141 S. Ct. 1596, 1599 (2021), with precedent

allowing police to enter a home without a warrant under exigent circumstances.

In this appeal, we determine whether police needed a warrant to enter a home to

assist (and protect) a social worker investigating child endangerment. The

defendant was drinking at a local establishment when a phone call from his wife

prompted him to rush home. She had been arrested for child endangerment and

was handcuffed in a squad car when he arrived. Officers suspected he was

intoxicated and knew he was agitated. They followed him inside where a lone

social worker was interviewing three young children. He was arrested for

operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, second offense; harassment of a

public official; and interference with official acts.

He moved to suppress evidence on the grounds that the police violated his

rights under the Fourth Amendment and Iowa Constitution by seizing him and

entering the home without a warrant. The district court denied his motion and

convicted him in a trial on the minutes of testimony. He appealed, and we

transferred the case to the court of appeals, which affirmed over a dissent. We

granted the defendant’s application for further review.

On our review, we determine that the police did not seize the defendant

before he entered the home and their warrantless entry was justified to protect

and assist the social worker under the exigent circumstances. We affirm the

denial of his motion to suppress and his conviction. 4

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

On the evening of June 27, 2019, a 911 caller reported a small child

hanging out of a second-story window of a home in Carlisle. The window was

only partially covered by a broken screen. Officer Zach Buehrer of the Carlisle

Police Department responded to the call and spoke with the child’s mother, who

became aggressive. Officer Buehrer notified the Iowa Department of Human

Services (DHS) and arrested the mother. Officer Buehrer requested backup to

help him handle the scene, which included three children, ages nine, six, and

four; the children’s grandmother; a responding social worker from DHS; and the

mother who had been arrested. Warren County Sheriff’s Deputy Derek Konrad

arrived and helped corral the children who were running in and out of the house.

The mother called her husband, Santos Rene Torres, and told him that

she had been arrested at their home. Torres drove home from a restaurant where

he had been drinking. Officers met Torres upon his arrival and told him where

to park his truck to avoid blocking traffic. Torres was agitated and uncooperative,

and officers suspected that he had been drinking. Accompanied by the officers,

Torres approached the squad car in which his wife was secured. After a brief

conversation, Officer Buehrer put his hand on Torres’s shoulder and said, “Let’s

go,” to move him away. Torres remained free to move about and walked inside

the house. Officer Buehrer knew the social worker from DHS was inside

investigating the child endangerment incident and thought it best to keep an eye

on Torres. Officer Buehrer followed Torres inside without being invited in or told

not to enter. 5

Inside, Torres’s mother-in-law was looking after the children while Kate

Roy, a Child Protective Worker (CPW) with DHS, interviewed them.

Deputy Konrad also entered the home to assist with the children so that they

would not interrupt the conversation or wander out of the house. Torres walked

around inside, accompanied by an officer. After Torres spent time alone in a

bathroom, Officer Buehrer patted him down for weapons. When Torres spoke to

Roy, she noticed he was blinking and speaking slowly, leaning forward, and

appeared to have bloodshot eyes. Roy asked Torres if he was under the influence

of any substances; Torres said no. Deputy Konrad also noticed that Torres

smelled of alcohol, his eyes were bloodshot, and his speech was slurred.

Deputy Konrad asked Torres to step outside for field sobriety tests. Torres

and Deputy Konrad went outside, but Torres refused to perform the sobriety

tests. Torres admitted, however, that he had had been drinking before he drove

home. As Deputy Konrad began to handcuff Torres, he resisted and reached deep

into his front pants pocket with a free hand. Other officers helped subdue Torres,

handcuff him, and place him in the back of Deputy Konrad’s squad car. Torres

repeatedly called Deputy Konrad a racist and said, “Racist cops like you are why

people kill cops.” Torres refused a preliminary breath test. Torres was advised

he was under arrest and was read his Miranda rights.

Torres was charged with operating while intoxicated, second offense. See

Iowa Code § 321J.2(2)(b) (2019). Torres stipulated that he previously had been

convicted of operating while intoxicated. He was also charged with two simple 6

misdemeanors: harassment of a public official and interference with official acts.

See id. § 718.4; id. § 719.1(1)(b).

Torres filed a motion to suppress evidence that he argued was collected in

violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and

article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution. At the suppression hearing, he

contended that he was illegally seized, that the officers lacked grounds to enter

his home without a warrant, and that evidence of his statements and

observations of his intoxication should be suppressed. The district court denied

Torres’s motion. In its ruling, the district court considered both the community

caretaking exception and exigent circumstances to justify the officers’

warrantless entry into Torres’s house:

In responding to a call for a child hanging out of a second story window, the officers had every reason to enter the home to assess the safety of the children. The officers were exercising a bona fide community caretaking function when they did so.

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