State of Tennessee v. Angela Faye Daniel

552 S.W.3d 832
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 20, 2018
DocketM2015-01073-SC-R11-CD
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 552 S.W.3d 832 (State of Tennessee v. Angela Faye Daniel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Tennessee v. Angela Faye Daniel, 552 S.W.3d 832 (Tenn. 2018).

Opinion

JEFFREY S. BIVINS, CHIEF JUSTICE

We granted permission to appeal in this case in order to determine whether the exclusionary rule should be applied to a blood sample drawn from an individual pursuant to a search warrant because the arresting officer failed to leave a copy of the warrant with the individual. The Defendant, Angela Faye Daniel, was arrested for driving under the influence. The arresting officer obtained a search warrant and transported the Defendant to a medical facility for a blood draw. The officer failed to give the Defendant a copy of the search warrant. The trial court granted the Defendant's motion to suppress the evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant on the basis of the exclusionary rule set forth in Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41. The State sought and was granted an interlocutory appeal, and the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. We hold that, under the facts and circumstances of this case, a good-faith exception should be applied to Rule 41 's exclusionary rule. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment below and remand this matter to the trial court for further proceedings.

Factual and Procedural Background

On June 6, 2014, Officer Megan Valentin of the Franklin Police Department stopped the Defendant for suspected driving under the influence. The Defendant admitted to consuming alcohol but refused to participate in any field sobriety tests. Officer Valentin arrested the Defendant and then obtained a search warrant for a blood draw. Officer Valentin transported the Defendant to Williamson County Medical Center, and Sherry Buie 2 withdrew a blood sample from the Defendant. The Defendant subsequently was indicted for driving under the influence of an intoxicant in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401 (Supp. 2014).

The Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained pursuant to the search warrant on the basis that she was not given a copy of the warrant. 3 At the ensuing evidentiary hearing, Officer Valentin testified that it was her normal practice to provide a copy of search warrants to the persons affected. However, she did not remember specifically giving a copy of the search warrant at issue in this case to the Defendant. She stated that she did not have a reason to withhold the copy from the Defendant, that she did not purposefully withhold the copy from the Defendant, and that, if she had withheld it, it was due to a mistake on her part.

The Defendant testified that she recalled being arrested on June 6, 2014, and that she recalled being taken to the hospital and having blood taken from her. The Defendant stated that she was given the pink copy of the Implied Consent Form. When asked if she had received "a copy of a search warrant or anything that said search warrant on it?" the Defendant replied, "I did not." When asked on cross-examination whether there was a possibility that she did not remember correctly, the Defendant stated, "I didn't get the copy." When asked the same question a second time, the Defendant answered, "There is not a possibility, I didn't get the paperwork." She based her certainty on her clear memory of the events at issue. 4

On the basis of this testimony, the trial court found as follows:

The testimony from [the Defendant] is that she was not given a copy of the search warrant. She was very adamant about that. The testimony from Officer Valentin is that she simply did not recall, but in most situations she does. And let me say, you know, I applaud Ms.-Officer Valentin, that she was-she was honest both in General Sessions and in this Court and this proceeding when she just said I cannot prove in this particular case that I-I gave her a copy, and I just don't remember. And I appreciate [Officer Valentin's] honesty.... [I]n this case, the defense has proven by a preponderance of the evidence that [the Defendant] was not given a copy of the search warrant. [ Rule 41 ] is pretty clear ... [that] if a copy is not given to the accused then any evidence has to be suppressed.

Based on these findings and conclusions, the trial court ruled that, pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g)(6), Officer Valentin's apparent failure to give the Defendant a copy of the warrant at the time of its execution required suppression of the evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant. The trial court further concluded that Officer Valentin's failure to provide the Defendant with a copy of the search warrant was not a "clerical error" as defined by the Exclusionary Rule Reform Act, Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-6-108 (2012) ("the ERRA"). Accordingly, the ERRA did not apply so as to exempt the evidence from suppression under Rule 41. Therefore, the trial court granted the Defendant's motion to suppress.

Subsequently, the State sought and obtained an interlocutory appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. State v. Daniel , No. M2015-01073-CCA-R9-CD, 2016 WL 1213007 , at *5 (Tenn. Crim. App. Mar. 29, 2016), perm. app. granted (Tenn. Jan. 18, 2017). We granted the State's application for permission to appeal in order to determine whether Rule 41 requires suppression of the evidence at issue under the facts and circumstances presented and, if so, whether the ERRA applies to countermand Rule 41 's exclusionary rule.

Standard of Review

The facts in this matter are not in dispute. Rather, we are reviewing the lower courts' construction of (1) Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 and (2) the ERRA. We review these questions of law de novo, with no presumption of correctness accorded to the rulings below. See State v. Henderson , 531 S.W.3d 687 , 692 (Tenn. 2017) (citing State v. Springer , 406 S.W.3d 526 , 532-33 (Tenn. 2013) ).

Analysis

We begin with the relevant text of Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 41. At the time the Defendant was arrested, that Rule provided that a magistrate issuing a search warrant "shall prepare an original and two exact copies" of the warrant. Tenn. R. Crim. P. 41(d) (2014). The Rule further required the magistrate to keep one copy as a part of his or her official records while another copy "shall be left with the person or persons on whom the search warrant is served." Id.

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Bluebook (online)
552 S.W.3d 832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-tennessee-v-angela-faye-daniel-tenn-2018.