IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA
No. 20-1549 Filed May 25, 2022
STATE OF IOWA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
vs.
SANTOS RENE TORRES, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________________________________________________
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Warren County, Brendan Greiner
(suppression motion) and Kevin Parker (bench trial), District Associate Judges.
Santos Rene Torres appeals the suppression ruling and his conviction for
operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, second offense, an aggravated
misdemeanor. AFFIRMED.
Benjamin Bergmann of Parrish Kruidenier Dunn Boles Gribble Gentry
Brown & Bergmann L.L.P., Des Moines, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Genevieve Reinkoester, Assistant
Attorney General, for appellee.
Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Tabor and May, JJ. 2
TABOR, Judge.
Santos Rene Torres was drinking beer at a local restaurant when he
received an upsetting phone call from his wife. She was under arrest for child
endangerment. Hearing that unwelcome news, Torres drove home, where he
encountered law enforcement in his yard. They would not let him talk to his wife,
who was being held in a patrol car. They followed him into his house, where a
child protective worker was interviewing the children. The worker asked if he was
under the influence. The officers eventually arrested Torres for operating while
intoxicated (OWI). He moved to suppress evidence obtained during the encounter,
alleging he faced an illegal seizure and custodial interrogation. After the district
court denied the suppression motion, he agreed to a trial on the minutes of
testimony. The court found him guilty of second-offense OWI.
In this appeal, he challenges the suppression ruling and sufficiency of
evidence to prove he was intoxicated. Because the officers did not violate Torres’s
constitutional rights, we affirm the suppression ruling. And because the State
offered substantial evidence of his intoxication, we affirm his conviction.
I. Facts and Prior Proceedings
Carlisle police were dispatched to Torres’s residence after a passersby
noticed a six-year-old boy “hanging out of a second story window” with a broken
screen. Officer Zach Buehrer arrested the mother, who was caring for three
children. The mother called the children’s grandmother and their father, Torres.
Police called the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS). The grandmother
arrived first. Then child protective worker Kate Roy. 3
Torres arrived in his truck about fifteen minutes later. Officer Buehrer told
him where to park so he would not block traffic. The officer testified that he “had
initial thoughts when [Torres] first got there” that he might be under the influence.
But the officer said that he was not investigating Torres for OWI after “briefly”
talking to him. After he left his truck, Torres walked toward the house. Officer
Buehrer testified that Torres was agitated and uncooperative. So the officer
followed him from the lawn to the patrol car where his wife was in custody and then
back to the lawn. The officer told Torres when he could talk to his wife. The officer
also touched Torres’s shoulder, saying: “Let’s go.”1 Officer Buehrer then trailed
Torres into the residence. The officer was neither invited in nor told to stay out.
Once inside, Buehrer patted Torres down for weapons and when Torres used the
bathroom, the officer waited right outside the door.
Meanwhile in the house, child protective worker Roy interviewed the three
children—ages nine, six, and four. About five minutes after arriving, Torres
interacted with Roy in the kitchen. During this interaction, Roy noticed that he was
blinking slowly, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was leaning forward. She asked
if he was “under the influence of anything.” As she recalled, Torres did not
respond. But Deputy Derek Konrad—who was inside to “assist” with the children—
testified that he heard Torres deny that he had been drinking.
When Roy was done speaking with Torres, Konrad “went over to talk with
him.” The deputy could smell alcohol on Torres’s breath and noticed that his eyes
1At the suppression hearing, defense counsel played a video for the officer to “jog” his recollection about that encounter. But the video exhibit included in the appellate record does not show that footage. Instead, the exhibit available to us starts after Torres leaves the house and is placed under arrest. 4
were bloodshot and his speech was slurred. The deputy asked Torres to step
outside for field sobriety testing. Torres went outside but refused testing. At first,
he denied drinking alcohol, but he eventually admitted having two beers at the
restaurant before receiving the call that his wife had been arrested. The officers
then arrested Torres for OWI, as well as interference with official acts and
harassment of a public official.2
In a motion to suppress, Torres claimed the State violated his
rights to be free from unreasonable searches and/or seizures as guaranteed by the . . . Federal Constitution and article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution . . . by seizing [him] without reasonable articulable suspicion, searching him and his home without probable cause, and interrogating him while he was in custody without a Miranda warning.
He sought to exclude “any and all fruits” of that seizure and statements obtained
during that custodial interrogation.
The district court denied the suppression motion.3 Because the officers
entered the house without a warrant, the court analyzed two exceptions: exigent
circumstances and the community caretaking exception. The court found:
[U]nder these circumstances, it was incumbent upon the officers to remain near the defendant; the defendant was suspected of being intoxicated, responded to a child endangerment investigation, and most importantly, was visibly agitated at the prospect of his children
2 Torres repeatedly called Deputy Konrad a racist and said: “Racist cops like you are why people kill cops.” Only the OWI charge is at issue in this appeal. 3 The court was “not convinced” that Torres had “standing, or a legitimate
expectation of privacy, to raise the argument of a warrantless search of the home.” The court pointed to filings in which Torres listed a Des Moines address. But because the State conceded that issue, the court decided the motion on its merits. 5
being removed. In fact, the officers would have been derelict in their duty to leave the defendant unattended in this situation.
The court also ruled that Torres did not face custodial interrogation. The court later
convicted Torres of OWI, second offense, following a trial on the minutes of
testimony. Torres now appeals.
II. Scope and Standards of Review
We review Torres’s suppression challenge de novo. State v. Fogg, 936
N.W.2d 664, 667 (Iowa 2019). We evaluate the situation facing these peace
officers “in light of its unique circumstances.” Id.
We review his sufficiency claim for legal error. State v. Leckington, 713
N.W.2d 208, 213–14 (Iowa 2006). We will uphold the district court’s finding of guilt
if there is substantial evidence in the record to support the conviction. State v.
McPhillips, 580 N.W.2d 748, 752 (Iowa 1998). Substantial evidence means a
rational factfinder would be convinced of defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable
doubt. Id. at 752–53. In deciding whether the evidence is substantial, we view the
record in the light most favorable to the State and make all reasonable inferences
that may fairly be drawn from its proof. Id.
III. Analysis
A. Suppression Motion
1. Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment states,
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 6
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. Our state constitution has a similar provision. See Iowa
Const. art. I, § 8. Torres does not argue for a distinct analysis under the Iowa
Constitution. So we will discuss only the Fourth Amendment. See State v.
Stevens, 970 N.W.2d 598, 602 (Iowa 2022) (“We decide today’s case under the
federal [C]onstitution. Although [the defendant] cited both the Iowa and federal
[C]onstitutions below, he did not argue for more protection or adoption of a different
standard under the Iowa Constitution.”).
Torres limits his argument to the question of seizure.4 A person is “seized”
under the Fourth Amendment only if, in considering the totality of circumstances,
a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave. United
States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 553 (1980). Torres bears the burden to show
a seizure occurred. See Fogg, 936 N.W.2d at 668. To carry that burden, Torres
contends a reasonable person in his position would have believed he was not free
to leave “long before the DHS worker noticed he was intoxicated.” He then
contends his seizure was unreasonable because officers did not have reasonable
suspicion or probable cause to believe he was under the influence until after Roy
spoke to him inside the house.
The State’s position on seizure is less clear. At the suppression hearing,
the prosecutor insisted “a seizure of the defendant had not occurred.” But on
4 Torres does not seriously dispute the State’s position that the officers were allowed to be in the house. Instead, he assumes the validity of that position and argues “the State cannot explain why following Mr. Torres’ movements in the house, controlling who he could and could not talk to, and even following him to the bathroom was necessary.” 7
appeal, the State does not engage on the seizure question. Instead, the State
argues exigent circumstances justified the officers’ actions and no evidence was
subject to suppression.
In addressing the seizure issue, we first observe that Torres’s encounter
with police was atypical. It was not an investigatory stop. Cf. Terry v. Ohio, 392
U.S. 1, 32 (1968). In fact, the officers did not initiate the contact. Rather, Torres
voluntarily showed up at the scene of a crime involving his child. When he arrived,
law enforcement and the DHS were still investigating the child-endangerment
offense; police held the mother in custody at the scene. Under those
circumstances, it was not unreasonable for the police to exert control over Torres’s
interaction with his arrested wife. See Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 249, 258
(2007) (noting that passengers should expect “that a police officer at the scene of
a crime, arrest, or investigation will not let people move around in ways that could
jeopardize his safety”); Am. Civ. Liberties Union of Ill. v. Alvarez, 679 F.3d 583,
607 (7th Cir. 2012) (allowing police to take reasonable steps to maintain safety
and control at a crime scene); see also City of Seattle v. Abercrombie, 945 P.2d
1132, 1135 (Wash. Ct. App. 1997) (“The ability of police officers to restrict public
access to a crime scene serves a significant government interest both in facilitating
a thorough investigation and assuring the safety of everyone at the scene,
including bystanders, any suspects, and officers.”). So even if the officer’s contact
with Torres outside the home amounted to a seizure, the Fourth Amendment
guards against only unreasonable seizures. See Brendlin, 551 U.S. at 257 (noting
that “a sensible person would not expect the officer to allow people to come and
go freely from the physical focal point of an investigation into faulty behavior or 8
wrongdoing”). It was reasonable for the officers to restrict Torres’s movements
while they finished their child-endangerment investigation and before they
acquired reasonable suspicion to investigate him for OWI. See State v. Sparr, 688
N.W.2d 913, 922 (Neb. Ct. App. 2004).
What’s more, Roy had not finished talking to the children inside the house
and still needed to interview Torres. Our supreme court has recognized that police
“routinely assist” DHS workers who are investigating child endangerment. State
v. Kern, 831 N.W.2d 149, 156 (Iowa 2013). That caretaking role persists until the
children are removed from the home. Id. at 174. Here, as they continued to assist
the DHS, the officers were free to enter the house where Roy was interviewing the
children and then Torres. The mother’s arrest did not immediately cut off police
access to the place where the crime occurred and witnesses remained. As the
district court found, after the agitated father arrived at the scene, police would have
been derelict in their duty to leave him alone with the DHS worker. And contrary
to Torres’s view, the grandmother’s presence in the home did not render the
officers’ continued attention unnecessary. Without police and DHS intervention,
the father—even if seriously impaired—would have been left as the custodian of
his children after the mother’s arrest. So it is fair to say the officers continued to
act as community caretakers under the exigent circumstances of the child-
endangerment investigation.
True, the United States Supreme Court recently scaled back the community
caretaking exception. In Caniglia v. Strom, the Court explained that exception was
not a “standalone doctrine that justifies warrantless searches and seizures in the
home.” 141 S. Ct. 1596, 1599 (2021). The Court thus held that police officers 9
violated Caniglia’s Fourth Amendment rights by entering his home without a
warrant and seizing his firearms after he was taken away in an ambulance for a
psychiatric evaluation. Id. at 1598–1600. But the Court reiterated “that law
enforcement officers may enter private property without a warrant when certain
exigent circumstances exist, including the need to ‘render emergency assistance
to an injured occupant or to protect an occupant from imminent injury.’” Id. at 1599
(quoting Kentucky v. King, 563 U.S. 452, 460 (2011)). As one of the three special
concurrences emphasized: “The Fourth Amendment allows officers to enter a
home if they have ‘an objectively reasonable basis for believing’ that such help is
needed, and if the officers’ actions inside the home are reasonable under the
circumstances.” Id. at 1604 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring). That test is satisfied
here. Helping the child protective worker in her mission to secure a stable
caregiver for these young children in the wake of their mother’s arrest was a
legitimate role for the officers. In that role, they acted reasonably in patting down
Torres and checking on his sobriety. As our supreme court has recognized, the
exigent-circumstances exception was designed for situations presenting a
“compelling need for official action and no time to secure a warrant.” State v.
Wilson, 968 N.W.2d 903, 914 (Iowa 2022) (quoting Lange v. California, 141 S. Ct.
2011, 2017 (2021)).
As the State explains, the officers did not enter the house to search or seize
evidence. Instead, Officer Buehrer followed Torres inside to ensure everyone’s
safety and Deputy Konrad entered the home to mind the children while Roy spoke
to Torres. In the throes of the child-endangerment investigation, that law 10
enforcement response was prudent and did not violate Torres’s rights under the
Fourth Amendment. We thus affirm the suppression ruling on that ground.
2. Fifth Amendment
We next turn to Torres’s contention that he experienced a custodial
interrogation without the benefit of the advisory mandated by Miranda v. Arizona,
384 U.S. 436 (1966) (safeguarding Fifth Amendment privilege against self-
incrimination). First, Torres alleges the officers took him into custody by directing
him where to go while outside and by following him into his house. The Miranda
safeguards apply when “a suspect’s freedom of action is curtailed to a ‘degree
associated with formal arrest.’” State v. Miranda, 672 N.W.2d 753, 759 (Iowa
2003) (quoting Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 440 (1984)). Second, he
suggests that Roy interrogated him by asking if he was under the influence of
anything. Interrogation means words or actions by police officers that they know
or should know would reasonably likely elicit an incriminating response. See
Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 302 (1980).
Both of Torres’s claims are faulty. Torres was not in custody to a degree
associated with a formal arrest when he voluntarily entered his house to check on
his children and to discuss the situation with the child protective worker. And Roy
“was not an agent or stalking horse” for the police. State v. Pearson, 804 N.W.2d
260, 271 (Iowa 2011). She had her own reasons, as the worker investigating the
mother’s failure to supervise the children, for speaking to Torres. Her questions to
Torres were not a custodial interrogation. 11
B. Substantial Evidence
Suppression issues aside, Torres believes the State offered insufficient
evidence of his guilt. The State charged Torres with operating a motor vehicle
“[w]hile under the influence of an alcoholic beverage or other drug or a combination
of such substances.” Iowa Code § 321J.2(1)(a). He does not contest the operation
element. Rather, he argues the State failed to prove that he was under the
influence when he drove his pickup to the house.
Proof that a driver was “under the influence” may come in several forms:
(1) the driver’s reasoning or mental ability has been affected; (2) the driver’s
judgment is impaired; (3) the driver’s emotions are visibly excited; or (4) the driver
has, to any extent, lost control of bodily actions or motions. See State v.
Dominguez, 482 N.W.2d 390, 392 (Iowa 1992). Often the State will offer proof of
a defendant’s erratic driving, but such evidence is not essential to satisfying the
under-the-influence element. See id.
Here, the minutes of testimony included Deputy Konrad’s narrative report.
The deputy reported overhearing Roy ask Torres if he was under the influence.
During his own discussion with Torres, the deputy noticed bloodshot, watery eyes;
slurred speech; and “a heavy odor of alcohol emitting from his person.” Torres
also admitted drinking two beers before leaving the restaurant in response to his
wife’s call. But Konrad told Torres that based on their interactions he believed
Torres was underestimating his consumption. Torres refused field sobriety testing
and the DataMaster test to measure blood alcohol.5 He also reacted with hostility
5Under Iowa Code section 321J.16, his refusal to submit to a chemical test was admissible in the criminal action. And our supreme court has approved a related 12
to the officers, threatening them and resisting their efforts to place him under
arrest. In finding Torres guilty, the district court noted that Torres “was combative
and he was very uncooperative and his emotions were visibly excited.”
When considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we
find substantial evidence to support the district court’s finding that Torres operated
a vehicle while intoxicated.
AFFIRMED.
May, J., concurs; Vaitheswaran, P.J., partially dissents.
jury instruction that allows the factfinder to consider a test refusal in reaching its verdict. State v. Kilby, 961 N.W.2d 374, 377 n.4 (Iowa 2021). 13
VAITHESWARAN, Presiding Judge (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I agree there was substantial evidence to support the district court’s
determination that Torres operated a motor vehicle while intoxicated. But I would
reverse the suppression ruling.
“[P]olice intrusion into the home implicates the very core of the Fourth
Amendment to the United States Constitution.” State v. Wilson, 968 N.W.2d 903,
911 (Iowa 2022). “Because interests in privacy and security in the home are so
fundamental, the United States Supreme Court has declared that ‘a firm line’ is
drawn for search and seizure principles at the entrance to the home.” Id. at 912
(quoting Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 589–90 (1980)). The “firm line” is “not
inviolable.” Lange v. California, 141 S. Ct. 2011, 2018 (2021). “An officer may
always enter a home with a proper warrant.” Id. And there are exceptions to the
warrant requirement. See id. “But the contours of that or any other warrant
exception permitting home entry are ‘jealously and carefully drawn,’ in keeping with
the ‘centuries-old principle’ that the ‘home is entitled to special protection.’” Id.
(quoting Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 109 (2006)).
The United States Supreme Court recently narrowed those contours. In
Lange, the Court held “the need to pursue a misdemeanant does not trigger a
categorical rule allowing home entry, even absent a law enforcement emergency.”
Id. at 2021–22. The Court continued, “When the nature of the crime, the nature of
the flight, and surrounding facts present no such exigency, officers must respect
the sanctity of the home—which means that they must get a warrant.” Id. at 2022.
The Court relied on Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 742–43 (1984), which
limited a warrantless arrest of a person in his home for a minor crime. 14
The Court also narrowed the contours of the community-caretaking
exception to the warrant requirement. In Caniglia v. Strom, 141 S. Ct. 1596, 1598–
99 (2021), the Court rejected it as a “standalone” exception to the warrant
requirement for entry into the home. The Court reasoned, “What is reasonable for
vehicles is different from what is reasonable for homes” and underscored that it
had “repeatedly ‘declined to expand the scope of . . . exceptions to the warrant
requirement to permit warrantless entry into the home.’” Caniglia, 141 S. Ct. at
1600 (quoting Collins v. Virginia, 138 S. Ct. 1663, 1672 (2018)).
Before I address exceptions to the warrant requirement, I will consider the
foundational question of whether officers effected a seizure of Torres that
implicated the Fourth Amendment. Torres does not limit the scope of his seizure
argument to police conduct inside the home. He argues the seizure occurred “as
soon as he arrived” and continued on his entry into the home and his use of the
bathroom. In the district court, he explicitly challenged every aspect of the officers’
interactions with him, thereby preserving error. Accordingly, I will not limit my
seizure discussion to the home.
“Whether a ‘seizure’ occurred is determined by the totality of the
circumstances.” State v. Wilkes, 756 N.W.2d 838, 842 (Iowa 2008). “[F]or a
seizure to occur, there must be . . . objective indices of police coercion, the element
of coercion, or coercive or authoritative behavior.” State v. Fogg, 936 N.W.2d 664,
669 (Iowa 2019) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted); State v. Reinders,
690 N.W.2d 78, 82 (Iowa 2004) (“A seizure occurs when an officer by means of
physical force or show of authority in some way restrains the liberty of a citizen.”). 15
When Torres arrived, the mother was secured in a police vehicle and the
children’s grandmother was attending to them inside the home. Torres came in
his truck fifteen minutes after the child protective worker. Although the Carlisle
officer testified that he and the deputy sheriff “had initial thoughts when [Torres]
first got there” that he might be under the influence, the officer apparently paid no
heed to those thoughts and instructed Torres to drive his vehicle to another
designated location. See United States v. Beauchamp, 659 F.3d 560, 567–68 (6th
Cir. 2011) (holding the defendant “was seized when, in compliance with [the
officer’s] instructions, he stopped, turned around, faced the uniformed officer and
the marked patrol car, and began to walk toward the officer” and stating, “[j]ust as
‘[s]topping after being ordered to stop triggers the Fourth Amendment,’ so too does
changing course and complying with an officer’s requests” (quoting United States
v. Johnson, 620 F.3d 685, 691 (6th Cir. 2010))).
Torres parked the vehicle where he was told and returned on foot. The
officer followed him as he went toward the patrol car and told him when he could
talk to his wife. See Wilson v. Jara, 866 F. Supp. 2d 1270, 1296 (D.N.M. 2011),
aff’d, 512 F. App’x 841 (10th Cir. 2013) (finding a seizure occurred when officers
ordered a mother who answered her door to “go get your son” even though the
mother “was not a suspect,” and stating, “[o]fficers seize a person when an officer
attempts to assert his or her official authority over a citizen, and the citizen does
not feel that he or she is at liberty to disregard that authority”). The Carlisle officer
followed Torres into the house. Cf. State v. Breuer, 577 N.W.2d 41, 48 (Iowa 1998)
(stating a deputy “did not unreasonably invade [the defendant’s] legitimate
expectation of privacy by opening the unlocked outer door of the apartment 16
building and proceeding up the stairway to [the defendant’s] apartment door
without a warrant”). Shortly thereafter, the officer summoned the deputy to come
inside. Both officers followed Torres to the bathroom and waited outside the door
until he exited. See United States v. Villa-Gonzalez, 623 F.3d 526, 532–34 (8th
Cir. 2010) (concluding defendant was seized by officers when neither occupant of
the home gave the officers consent to enter; “[t]hree officers were present in the
trailer” and “[t]he officers . . . positioned themselves so as limit [the occupants’]
freedom of movement”). The deputy later questioned Torres about his sobriety
and instructed him to go outside for a sobriety check.
The Carlisle officer conceded he began directing Torres “where he could
and could not go” from the point of Torres’ arrival. Cf. Brendlin v. California, 551
U.S. 249, 258, 263 (2007) (stating vehicle occupants’ expectation that they would
not be allowed to move around at the scene of an investigation supported a
determination that they were “seized” and concluding the defendant “was seized
from the moment [the driver’s] car came to a halt on the side of the road”); Am.
Civ. Liberties Union of Ill. v. Alvarez, 679 F.3d 583, 586, 607 (7th Cir. 2012)
(addressing “whether the First Amendment prevents Illinois prosecutors from
enforcing the eavesdropping statute against people who openly record police
officers performing their official duties in public” and concluding the State’s interest
in “reduc[ing[ the likelihood of provoking persons during officers’ mercurial
encounters” was “not threatened”); City of Seattle v. Abercrombie, 945 P.2d 1132,
1135 (Wash Ct. App. 1997) (addressing a free-speech challenge to an ordinance
and concluding “a violation of the ordinance is triggered only by refusing to comply
with an order to leave the scene of an investigation, not by exercising free speech 17
rights”). The officer expressed no doubt that he demanded Torres speak to him
and look at him. He further agreed he told Torres “when he could and could not
talk to his wife.” He put his hand on Torres three times and told him, “Let’s go.”
He conceded he followed Torres from his lawn to the patrol car and back to his
lawn, “never leaving his side.” He confirmed the house was “Santos’ house,” and
he agreed he followed Torres into “his home” and Torres did not invite him in. Nor
had the mother of the children invited him in prior to her arrest. The officer trailed
Torres throughout the house. He then reconnoitered with the deputy outside and
both reentered the home. The Carlisle officer agreed he was “still uninvited.” As
noted, he waited outside the upstairs bathroom until Torres exited. Then, he
followed Torres down to the kitchen.
The deputy sheriff similarly agreed the home was “unambiguously” Torres’.
He initially “stayed outside” while the Carlisle officer “went inside with [Torres].”
When he “went inside,” he agreed he “followed [Torres] around his home.” He
agreed he eventually told Torres to come outside. He acknowledged Torres was
not “free to leave” and that would have been at some point before he told him to
go outside.
On my de novo review of the record, I would conclude the law enforcement
officers “seized” Torres. In my view, the seizure began outside the home and
continued with the officers’ warrantless entry into Torres’ home. I believe the
Fourth Amendment protection against warrantless seizures was implicated.
The State concedes “warrants are generally required to search a person’s
home or his person” but argues exigent circumstances supported the warrantless
intrusion. The State suggests a warrant was not required here, given the officers’ 18
suspicion of intoxication, the child-endangerment investigation, and Torres’
“visibl[e] agitat[ion] at the prospect of” the removal of his children.
As discussed, the Carlisle officer testified the officers “had initial thoughts”
that Torres appeared to be under the influence of alcohol “when he first got there.”
Yet, neither he nor the deputy investigated their suspicions at that juncture.
Indeed, the deputy acknowledged that, when Torres arrived at his home, he was
“not investigating him for any offense.” And, notwithstanding the officer’s suspicion
of intoxication, Torres was instructed to drive his vehicle to another location.
As for the child-endangerment investigation, the mother had been arrested
and secured in the patrol car by the time Torres arrived. Cf. State v. Salcedo, 935
N.W.2d 572, 577 (Iowa 2019) (stating the deputy “failed to obtain individualized
suspicion of other criminal activity before unreasonably prolonging the stop. The
unreasonableness of the stop was in violation of [the defendant’s] Fourth
Amendment rights”); State v. Coleman, 890 N.W.2d 284, 290 (Iowa 2017)
(observing “the lawfulness of the seizure c[a]me to an end” when the “reasonable
suspicion for the stop had been completely dispelled”). Although the deputy cited
the need to go inside the house to assist with the children, their grandmother was
in the home for the express purpose of supervising them. Notably, the Carlisle
officer testified he had no concern at that time that the children were unsafe. There
also was no evidence that the deputy fulfilled his stated purpose of supervising the
children. In sum, the deputy’s entry into the home had nothing to do with the
children and everything to do with Torres.
It is worth reiterating that no facts tied Torres to the circumstances triggering
the mother’s arrest for child endangerment. The Carlisle officer reported that he 19
spoke to Torres about those circumstances and Torres “admitted [the mother] had
been having a tough time lately.” The officer did not suggest Torres was to blame
or mention any exigency relating to the mother’s arrest for child endangerment.
Turning to Torres’ “visible agitation” at the prospect of the children’s
removal, I am hard pressed to discern how his understandable distress created an
exigency requiring a warrantless, nonconsensual intrusion into his home. See
Wilson, 968 N.W.2d at 914 (noting “the exigent-circumstances exception was
designed for situations presenting ‘a compelling need for official action and no time
to secure a warrant’” (quoting Lange, 141 S. Ct. at 2017)). And most, if not all, the
agitation occurred after the deputy expressed an intent to arrest him.
In any event, exigent circumstances for a warrantless entry must be coupled
with probable cause for the entry. See State v. Lewis, 675 N.W.2d 516, 525 (Iowa
2004) (noting that officers needed probable cause and exigent circumstances to
enter the curtilage of a home without a warrant and reasonable suspicion did not
suffice). The child protective worker’s observations could not furnish that probable
cause and be imputed to the officers because she was not a peace officer. See
State v. Werner, 919 N.W.2d 375, 376 (Iowa 2018) (concluding certain department
of transportation officers “lacked authority . . . to engage in general traffic
enforcement under Iowa Code chapter 321” (citing Rilea v. Iowa Dep’t of Transp.,
919 N.W.2d 380, 389 (Iowa 2018)); State v. Palmer, 554 N.W.2d 859, 866, 867
(Iowa 1996) (concluding a person “was not a qualified peace officer for purposes
of the implied consent statute” and declining to apply imputed knowledge doctrine
to a person not qualified as a peace officer). As for the deputy’s observations of
Torres inside the home, those observations occurred after the warrantless entry 20
into the home. Finally, the officers’ suspicions of intoxication on Torres’ arrival at
the home were just that—suspicions. They did not amount to probable cause. See
Lewis, 675 N.W.2d at 525 (“Reasonable and articulable suspicion did not give the
officers the authority to enter [the defendant’s] fenced yard.”). I would conclude
the officers’ warrantless entry into Torres’ home was not supported by the
probable-cause/exigent-circumstances exception to the warrant requirement.
I am left with the community-caretaking exception. The State unequivocally
concedes that, under Caniglia, “the community caretaking doctrine does not apply
to warrantless entries into a home.” 141 S. Ct. at 1599–1600. But, even if it did,
there is scant, if any, evidence that the exception was applicable. The exception
“turns on whether the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure
would have warranted a reasonable person to believe an emergency existed.”
State v. Crawford, 659 N.W.2d 537, 543 (Iowa 2003). As discussed, a reasonable
person would not have believed an emergency existed at the time of Torres’
seizure. See Caniglia, 141 S. Ct. at 1603-04 (Kavanaugh, J., concurring)
(recognizing the exigency generated by “need to assist persons who are seriously
injured or threatened with such injury” and citing a non-exhaustive list of
exigencies, such as contemplated suicide, an elderly man who is
“uncharacteristically absent,” and “unattended young children inside a home”
(emphasis added)). I would conclude the exception was inapplicable.
The State argues any error was harmless. See State v. Lukins, 846 N.W.2d
902, 912 (Iowa 2014); State v. McConnelee, 690 N.W.2d 27, 33 (Iowa 2004). I
disagree. Virtually all the evidence cited by the State arose after the officers’
warrantless entry into Torres’ home. Even if the Carlisle officer suspected Torres 21
was intoxicated at the moment of his arrival, he cited nothing about Torres’
appearance at that moment to support his suspicion and, as noted, he allowed him
to reenter his truck and drive to another location. On these facts, I cannot say “the
guilty verdict actually rendered . . . was surely unattributable to the error.”
McConnelee, 600 N.W.2d at 33 (citation omitted).
I would conclude the officers’ observations of Torres and any admissions
he made to consuming alcohol should have been suppressed and any similar
observations made by the child protective worker could not be imputed to the
officers. I would reverse the suppression ruling and Torres’ “judgment of conviction
and remand for a new trial” in which the evidence that should have been
suppressed “is excluded.” Id.; see also Salcedo, 935 N.W.2d at 581. I would find
it unnecessary to discuss whether Torres was subjected to a custodial
interrogation without the benefit of Miranda warnings.