State v. Fuller

57 P.3d 771, 138 Idaho 60, 2002 Ida. LEXIS 161
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 23, 2002
DocketNo. 28553
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 57 P.3d 771 (State v. Fuller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fuller, 57 P.3d 771, 138 Idaho 60, 2002 Ida. LEXIS 161 (Idaho 2002).

Opinion

EISMANN, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court suppressing evidence obtained from a parolee. We reverse the order of the district court and remand this case for further proceedings.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The respondent Kenneth Fuller was convicted of a felony in Oregon and later paroled. He transferred to the state of Idaho pursuant to the Out-of-State Parolee Supervision Act, Idaho Code §§ 20-301 & 20-302 (1997), and the Idaho Department of Correction (Department) accepted supervision of him on March 10, 1998. Fuller entered into a parole supervision agreement with the Department that included the provision, “I agree and consent to the search of my person, automobile, real property, and any other property at any time and at any place by any agent of the Division of Field and Community Services. I waive my constitutional right to be free from such searches.” Another provision of the supervision agreement provided, “I shall not use or possess any controlled substances unless lawfully prescribed by a licensed physician. I agree to submit to tests for controlled substances or alcohol on my own expense as requested by my supervising officer or any agent of the Division of Field and Community Services.”

Fuller’s parole officer was Probation/Parole Officer Kathy Marler. She submitted a report to the state of Oregon in which she stated that Fuller had violated the conditions of his parole and requested that he be arrested and his parole revoked. On February 22, 1999, the State of Oregon, Board of Parole/Post-Prison Supervision issued an order that provided, “The Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision hereby suspends the supervision of the above named person who was released on supervision on 02/05/1991. You are hereby authorized and directed to take custody and have this person detained until further order of the board.” The next day, Oregon officials informed Marler by telephone that they had received a parole commission warrant for Fuller’s arrest, but they stated it could only be served in Oregon.

On February 24,1999, Fuller came to Officer Marler’s office for a regularly-scheduled appointment. During that meeting, Officer Marler asked Fuller for a urine sample to test for controlled substances. Officer Bob Anderson, who supervised the taking and inoffiee testing of the urine sample, and Officer Michael Moser, who was present when the urine sample was tested, assisted Officer Marler. Fuller’s urine sample tested positive for methamphetamine. He was also present when his urine sample was tested.

[62]*62Officer Moser then confronted Fuller about the positive urine sample, and Fuller eventually admitted to using methamphetamine within the last couple days. Officer Moser asked Fuller if he had any drugs in his vehicle, and Fuller stated that he did not. Officer Moser then instructed Fuller to wait in the front lobby of the probation and parole office and stated that he was going to search Fuller’s vehicle. Officer Moser also notified Officer Marler of his suspicion that Fuller had drugs in his vehicle. She requested that Officer Moser call the Kootenai County Drug Task Force for assistance, and he did so. Officer Eric Hildebrandt of the Task Force agreed to assist in the search.

Officer Moser then took Fuller into an office and handcuffed him. Fuller immediately asked to use the restroom. As Officer Moser was escorting Fuller to the restroom, Fuller stated, “It’s under the front seat.” Officer Moser asked what Fuller was talking about, and Fuller stated that he had methamphetamine under the front seat of his vehicle.

When Officer Hildebrandt arrived, he and Officers Marler and Anderson searched Fuller’s vehicle. They found approximately three grams of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia under the front seat. During the period between the urine test and the search, Officer Marler was in another room having several telephone conversations with Oregon authorities. At some point she learned that an extraditable Oregon warrant had been entered in the National Crime Information Center computer and that Fuller could be arrested based upon that warrant.

On May 7, 1999, the State charged Fuller with the felony of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver. After a preliminary hearing, the presiding magistrate judge found that there was probable cause to believe that Fuller had committed the felony of possession of methamphetamine, but not that he did so with the intent to deliver. He bound Fuller over on the possession charge, and on June 16, 1999, the State filed an information charging Fuller with the felony crime of possession of methamphetamine.

Fuller filed motions to suppress the oral statements he made at the probation and parole office and the evidence obtained during the search of his vehicle. After a hearing, the district judge granted both motions. The district judge reasoned that the order suspending Fuller’s probation that was issued by the Oregon Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision was tantamount to an arrest warrant; that under Idaho Code § 20-228,1 which the court presumed to be consistent with Oregon law, the issuance of the arrest warrant suspended Fuller’s parole and transformed him into a fugitive from justice; and that the Idaho probation and parole officers therefore no longer had authority to supervise Fuller or to ask him to submit to urinalysis. The district court concluded that the request that Fuller submit a urine specimen for urinalysis violated his Fourth Amendment rights, and that the evidence obtained as a result of that request— his oral statements, and the evidence obtained from his vehicle — must be suppressed.

The State appealed, and the Idaho Court of Appeals initially heard the appeal. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Fuller waived his right to be free from unreason[63]*63able searches and seizures as a condition of his parole, that the warrant issued by Oregon suspended Fuller’s parole and made him a fugitive from justice, that Fuller’s prior waiver of his rights was therefore no longer effective, and that as a result Officer Marler had no legal authority to ask Fuller to submit to a urinalysis. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s holding that Fuller’s oral statements and the items found during the search of his vehicle were “fruit of the poisonous tree” under Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), and therefore inadmissible. The State then filed a petition for review, which we granted.

II. ANALYSIS

In cases that come before this Court on a petition for review of a Court of Appeals decision, this Court gives serious consideration to the views of the Court of Appeals, but directly reviews the decision of the lower court. Head v. State, 137 Idaho 1, 43 P.3d 760 (2002). When reviewing a trial court’s ruling on a motion to suppress, this Court will not disturb the trial court’s findings of fact if they are based upon substantial and competent, even though conflicting, evidence, but we freely review the application of the law to those factual findings. State v. Elison,

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314 P.3d 639 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
57 P.3d 771, 138 Idaho 60, 2002 Ida. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fuller-idaho-2002.