State v. Delaney

406 N.W.2d 584, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4414
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedJune 2, 1987
DocketNo. C1-86-2059
StatusPublished

This text of 406 N.W.2d 584 (State v. Delaney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Delaney, 406 N.W.2d 584, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4414 (Mich. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

LESLIE, Judge.

The State of Minnesota appeals from a pretrial order dismissing charges of driving after revocation and driving without license plates against respondent Patrick J. Delaney. The trial court dismissed the charges, finding the investigatory stop of Delaney unconstitutional. Delaney filed a notice of review, seeking review of the trial court’s determination that he was not entitled to dismissal of a charge of giving false information to a peace officer. We reverse the trial court’s dismissal of the charges against Delaney.

FACTS

On May 13,1986 at about 11:45 a.m. a St. Louis Park police officer was patrolling and observed respondent Patrick J. Delaney stopped at an intersection in an automobile. The vehicle was a 1984 model Buick with no license plates. Instead, a 21 day temporary permit, issued pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 168.092 subd. 1 (1984), was displayed in the rear window. The officer could not read the expiration date on the permit, but did observe the permit was faded.

Because he suspected the faded permit had expired, the officer stopped Delaney’s vehicle. The temporary permit had indeed expired and had been altered to change the expiration date. Upon inquiry Delaney gave the officer false identification. The officer noticed the description on the identification did not match Delaney’s features. Delaney then admitted his true identity.

Delaney’s driving privileges had been revoked in March 1985 for his second DWI offense. Consequently, the officer charged Delaney with driving after revocation in violation of Minn.Stat. § 171.24 (1984), driving without license plates in violation of Minn.Stat. 169.79 (1984), and giving false information to a peace officer in violation of Minn.Stat. § 171.22(5) (1984).

Delaney argued at a Rasmussen hearing that the investigatory stop of his vehicle was unconstitutional. The police officer testified that the only thing that raised suspicions in his mind was the temporary permit which appeared faded in color. He stated that in his experience a faded temporary permit often meant the permit had expired.

The trial court agreed with Delaney that the stop was unconstitutional because the officer “did not have sufficient specific, articulable facts to believe [Delaney] was engaged in criminal activity.” The court dismissed the charges for driving after rev[586]*586ocation and driving without license plates, but refused to dismiss the false information charge. It reasoned that evidence of a crime committed in response to an illegal stop need not be suppressed.

The State appeals the dismissal of charges, claiming the officer had a reasonable suspicion that Delaney was driving an unlicensed motor vehicle. Delaney filed a notice of review claiming the third charge should also be dismissed. He claims his actions amounted to passive refusal to consent to an illegal stop and all evidence should therefore be suppressed.

ISSUE

Did the trial court err in finding the stop of respondent’s vehicle unconstitutional?

ANALYSIS

The trial court relied in part on a Texas decision which held that a stop is invalid if the observed facts are consistent with innocent activity. See Schwartz v. State, 635 S.W.2d 545 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). The trial court reasoned that Delaney’s license, being “only slightly faded, * * * was as consistent with innocent activity as with criminal activity.”

The Texas approach has been rejected in Minnesota. See State v. Combs, 398 N.W.2d 563, 565-66 (Minn.1987). The Combs court quoted from the Supreme Court case of Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 243-44 n. 13, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2335 n. 13, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), which stated that “innocent behavior frequently will provide the basis for a showing of probable cause”. Here, the trial court erred by relying on the “innocent activity” rationale of Schwartz. However, the trial court also reasoned that the police did not have a sufficient objective basis to believe Delaney was engaged in criminal activity. Delaney claims this alone is a valid basis for holding the stop illegal.

An investigatory stop is valid if the police who make the stop have a “particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.” United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417-18, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). Delaney argues the determination that his temporary permit was “faded” is too subjective and dependent upon the individual officer’s interpretation to be consistent with the objective criterion necessary for a valid stop.

While objective observations may provide a sufficient basis for an investigatory stop, Berge v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 374 N.W.2d 730, 733, n. 1 (Minn.1985), the determinative issue is whether an officer’s “ ‘belief’ (or ‘suspicion’ or ‘assumption’) that the violation occurred was reasonably inferable from what he did see.” Id. at 733. In the present case, the observation justifying the stop is that the police officer noticed a faded temporary license. While Delaney argues that objective observations are required, he does not contend the license was valid or even that it was not faded. The officer testified that the license was faded and the trial court did find the license was “slightly faded.”

Additionally, the officer knew from experience that a faded license usually meant the license was expired. A police officer makes his assessment on the basis of all circumstances. United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 418, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). The officer then “draws inferences and makes deductions— inferences and deductions that might well elude an untrained person.” Id. The process deals with probabilities, not hard certainties. Id. Thus the officer in this case reasonably drew from the observed facts the inference that the license had expired.

In State v. Barber, 308 Minn. 204, 241 N.W.2d 476 (1976) the only fact justifying the stop was that a police officer had observed that license plates on an automobile had been wired on with baling wire instead of being bolted on. Id. at 207, 241 N.W.2d at 477. This single observation led to an inference of criminal activity and the stop was upheld as valid. The supreme court relied on language from a New York decision to support its holding:

It should be emphasized that the factual basis required to support a stop for a ‘routine traffic check’ is minimal. An [587]*587actual violation of the Vehicle and Traffic Law need not be detectable. For example, an automobile in a general state of dilapidation might properly arouse suspicion of equipment violations. All that is required is that the stop be not the product of mere whim, caprice, or idle curiosity.

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Related

United States v. Cortez
449 U.S. 411 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Illinois v. Gates
462 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1983)
Berge v. Commissioner of Public Safety
374 N.W.2d 730 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1985)
State v. Combs
398 N.W.2d 563 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1987)
State v. Barber
241 N.W.2d 476 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1976)
Schwartz v. State
635 S.W.2d 545 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1982)
People v. Ingle
330 N.E.2d 39 (New York Court of Appeals, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
406 N.W.2d 584, 1987 Minn. App. LEXIS 4414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-delaney-minnctapp-1987.