State v. Fugate

963 P.2d 686, 154 Or. App. 643, 1998 Ore. App. LEXIS 1079
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJune 24, 1998
Docket96-0660-C; CA A96628
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 963 P.2d 686 (State v. Fugate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fugate, 963 P.2d 686, 154 Or. App. 643, 1998 Ore. App. LEXIS 1079 (Or. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

[645]*645LANDAU, J.

Defendant was charged with driving while under the influence of intoxicants (DUII). ORS 813.010. The trial court granted defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress evidence of alcohol-related impairment, and the state appeals. The state contends that Senate Bill 936 (SB 936), although enacted by the 1997 Legislative Assembly after the trial court’s decision in this case, applies to this case and compels reversal. Defendant contends that the recently enacted legislation cannot be applied to this case on various constitutional grounds. We reject defendant’s constitutional contentions, conclude that SB 936 applies to this case, and reverse and remand.

We take the relevant facts from the findings of the trial court. On the night of February 11,1996, a police officer observed defendant driving a car without a license plate light. The officer stopped the vehicle, approached it and observed three passengers in addition to defendant. The officer asked for defendant’s driver’s license and asked all of the passengers for their identification, as well. The officer then ran a Motor Vehicle Division check on all four individuals. He found that defendant’s license had been suspended, but that the basis for the suspension would result in a traffic infraction, not a traffic crime. He also learned that there was an outstanding warrant for the arrest of one of the passengers. The officer directed the passenger to get out of the car, arrested him and conducted a search incident to the arrest. While searching the passenger, the officer noticed a pouch in the back seat of the car, which he thought was a gun holster. He seized the pouch, opened it and observed that, although it did not contain a gun, it did contain a spoon with white residue.

At that point, the officer ordered everyone else out of the car, including defendant. When defendant was out of the car, the officer noticed for the first time that defendant’s eyes were red and watery and that his breath smelled of alcohol. The officer requested, and defendant consented to perform, field sobriety tests, which defendant failed. The officer arrested defendant for driving under the influence of intoxicants.

[646]*646Defendant moved to suppress the evidence of his physical impairment on the ground that the officer observed that evidence only because he exceeded the permissible scope of a traffic stop when he asked the passengers for their identification. According to defendant, under ORS 810.410(3)(b), an officer may ask questions unrelated to the conduct that was the basis for the traffic stop only if the officer develops reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. In this case, defendant argued, the officer lacked any reasonable suspicion that the passengers had committed any violation, infraction or crime and, consequently, could not lawfully ask them for their identification. Defendant argues that the request for identification led to the officer discovering the one passenger’s outstanding warrant, which, in turn, led to the officer ordering defendant out of the car, which led the officer to observe for the first time evidence of defendant’s intoxication. The evidence of his intoxication, defendant concludes, was fruit of the poisonous tree.

The trial court agreed with defendant, explaining:

“The Court finds that by asking for the passengers’ identifications, the Officer exceeded the scope of the investigation authorized pursuant to a stop for a traffic infraction. ORS 810.410(3)(b) limits the authority of police officers to enlarge the scope of their investigation when a stop has been made for a traffic infraction. Under that statute, when an Officer stops a vehicle on the basis of a traffic infraction, the Officer may investigate only the infraction which gave rise to the stop, unless the State can identify some independent basis to enlarge the scope of the investigation. In the absence of an independent basis, the Officer lacks authority to extend the scope of the stop beyond an investigation for the traffic infraction for which the defendant is stopped. The Court finds that the Officer, at the time that he requested the passengers’ identification, had no reasonable suspicion that the passengers or the defendant driver had committed any type of crime or that the passengers had committed any traffic infraction. Therefore, the Officer had no authority under these circumstances to demand identification from all passengers in the vehicle.
“The Court further finds that the Officer’s observation of the nylon pouch was the result of the Officer’s having asked the passengers for identification and learning that [647]*647one of the passengers had a warrant outstanding for his arrest. The Court finds that it was this information that led to the expanded investigation resulting in defendant’s being asked to perform Field Sobriety Tests. Therefore, pursuant to the ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’ doctrine, all evidence of the defendant’s having driven under the influence of intoxicants is inadmissible.”

(Citations omitted.) The trial court’s order was entered on February 27,1997.

The state appealed. While the appeal was pending, the legislature enacted SB 936, section 1 of which provides:

“A court may not exclude relevant and otherwise admissible evidence in a criminal action on the grounds that it was obtained in violation of any statutory provision unless exclusion of the evidence is required by:
“(1) The United States Constitution or the Oregon Constitution[J”

Or Laws 1997, ch 313, § 1. The legislature declared that section 1, among others, applies to all criminal actions pending or commenced on or after December 5, 1996. Or Laws 1997, ch 313, § 38. SB 936 became effective on June 12,1997.

In its brief on appeal, the state argues that the trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion to suppress because, among other things, section 1 of SB 936 applies to this case and compels admission of the evidence in the absence of a constitutional impediment to doing so. Defendant asserts a number of arguments in opposition to the application of SB 936 to this case, which we will address in turn.

Defendant first argues that SB 936 is “invalid and unconstitutional.” In support of that argument, defendant asserts:

“Many of the arguments concerning the constitutionality of SB 936 are contained in briefs submitted by the Public Defender’s office to the Oregon Supreme Court attacking the constitutional validity of Ballot Measure 40, the so-called ‘victims’ rights’ initiative passed by the voters in November 1996 and effective December 5, 1996 (now codified as Article I, section 42, of the Oregon Constitution). [648]*648Rather than repeat these extensive arguments, defendant incorporates them by reference!.]”

The problem is that the arguments to which he refers, filed in State v. Cleveland, SC S41302; State v. Fleetwood, SC S41311; and State v. Toevs, SC S42836, are indeed extensive, and defendant does not explain which of the many arguments asserted in that case are intended to be asserted here.

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Bluebook (online)
963 P.2d 686, 154 Or. App. 643, 1998 Ore. App. LEXIS 1079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fugate-orctapp-1998.