State v. Hooper

267 N.E.2d 285, 25 Ohio St. 2d 59, 54 Ohio Op. 2d 194, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 568
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 10, 1971
DocketNo. 69-755
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 267 N.E.2d 285 (State v. Hooper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio 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. Hooper, 267 N.E.2d 285, 25 Ohio St. 2d 59, 54 Ohio Op. 2d 194, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 568 (Ohio 1971).

Opinions

O’Neill, C. J.

The sheriff of Monroe County was summoned to the scene of a two-car automobile accident in the village of Woodsfield at about 4:15 a. m. on September 19, 1965. The driver of one of the cars was immediately taken to the hospital.

The appellant was the driver of the other car, and [60]*60after an on-the-scene investigation and conversation with the appellant, the sheriff arrested the appellant and took him to jail at abont 5:00 a. m. Later that day, at approximately 12:30 p. m., the sheriff informed the appellant of his constitutional rights, including his right to remain silent and his right to counsel. The appellant waived his right to counsel and his right to remain silent, and in an oral statement to the sheriff voluntarily admitted his participation in drag racing which preceded the accident.

The next day the sheriff filed an affidavit in the County Court charging the appellant with drag racing in violation of R. C. 4511.251.

The appellant pleaded not guilty. No summons was ever issued, nor was any warrant for the arrest of the appellant ever obtained.

The appellant’s first trial resulted in a hung jury. Upon re-trial, the appellant was convicted, which conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court of Ohio overruled appellant’s motion to certify and dismissed his appeal as of right. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Later, the conviction was vacated by the United States District Court in a habeas corpus action. That court ordered that appellant be re-tried within 30 days, or be released. Upon re-trial on November 13, 1968, appellant was convicted and the conviction was affirmed bv the Court of Appeals.

Appellant asserts that since the drag racing occurred on September 19, 1965, and the re-trial from which the appellant is appealing did not occur until November 13, 1968, the prosecution is barred by R. C. 1.18, which provides that “No person shall be * * * criminally prosecuted for a misdemeanor, # * * unless such * * * prosecution [is] commenced, within three years from the time such misdemean- or was committed.”

The basis of appellant’s claim is that no summons was ever issued and no arrest warrant was ever obtained. Appellant contends that it was necessary to have an arrest warrant or a summons issued to “commence” the prosecution.

[61]*61Appellant’s position is without merit. His position is based npon the erroneous assumption that an affidavit must be filed and an arrest warrant or summons must be issued before a prosecution is “commenced.”

R. C. 2935.09 provides, in part, that “in order to cause the arrest or prosecution of a person charged with committing an offense in this state, a peace officer * * * shall file with the judge or clerk of a court of record, or with a magistrate, an affidavit charging the offense committed

Under the provisions of R. C. 2935.09 the filing of an affidavit is sufficient to “cause” the prosecution and thus under R. C. 1.18 is sufficient to “commence” the prosecution of one who is alleged to have committed a misdemeanor, and here the affidavit was filed one day after the commission of such misdemeanor.

Appellant cites R. C. 2935.10 as authority for the proposition that an arrest warrant or a summons must be issued in order to commence a prosecution. However, where the offense charged is a misdemeanor, the issuance of an arrest warrant or a summons is not mandatory. The purpose of the arrest warrant or summons is to satisfy the due-process requirement of notice of the charges filed against an alleged offender. Appellant makes no claim that he did not have notice of the charges against him.

Appellant’s second contention is that the oral confession, which he gave in the afternoon following his arrest, and which was admitted as evidence against him at his third trial, was the fruit of an unlawful arrest and, therefore, was inadmissible. This issue involves three questions ; Whether the arrest and subsequent detention were unlawful; if so, whether the “exclusionary rule” applied to constitutional violations is applicable to statutory violations of a non-constitutional dimension; and whether, in any event, the confession was a fruit of that unlawful arrest. It is not necessary to decide the first two questions, because even if the arrest were illegal and the exclusionary rule applicable, the subsequent confession was not a fruit of that arrest.

[62]*62The United States Supreme Court, in Wong Sun v. United States (1963), 371 U. S. 471, held the exclusionary rule of Weeks v. United States (1914), 232 U. S. 383 (later applied to state court proceedings in Mapp v. Ohio [1961], 367 U. S. 643), applicable to verbal evidence, such as confessions, which are the fruits of illegal searches and seizures. In Wong Sun, a federal narcotics agent, posing as a customer, presented himself at the laundry of one Toy at 6:00 a. m. When Toy refused him entrance because of the unusual hour the agent identified himself as such, and, with the aid of other agents, broke into the laundry without a warrant. They chased Toy to a back room where his family was sleeping and placed him under arrest. After Toy was handcuffed, he was accused by the agents of selling narcotics to one Horn Way. Under these conditions, Toy replied that he had not made any such sales, but he understood that a Johnny Yee was making such sales. While Toy intended his statement to be exculpatory, the subsequent investigation of Yee, based on the statement, uncovered the evidence which was used to convict Toy of a violation of the federal narcotics laws.

Toy contended that the evidence used to convict him was a fruit of his unlawful arrest because it was the direct result of his statement which he contended was a fruit of his arrest. The court was thereby faced squarely with the issue of whether a verbal statement, like physical evidence, could be the fruit of an unconstitutional search and seizure. Answering that question in the affirmative, the court stated the following:

“The exclusionary rule has traditionally barred from trial physical, tangible materials obtained either during or as a direct result of an unlawful invasion. It follows from our holding in Silverman v. United States, 365 U. S. 505, that the Fourth Amendment may protect against the overhearing of verbal statements as well as against the more traditional seizure of ‘papers and effects.’ # * Thus, verbal evidence which derives so immediately from an unlawful entry and an unauthorized arrest as the officer’s action in the present case is no less the ‘fruit’ of official illegal[63]*63ity than the more common tangible frnits of the unwarranted intrusion. * * * Nor do the policies underlying the exclusionary rule incite any logical distinction between physical and verbal evidence. Either in terms of deterring lawless conduct by federal officers, Rea v. United States, 350 U. S. 214, or of closing the doors of the federal courts to any use of evidence unconstitutionally obtained, Elkins v. United States,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
267 N.E.2d 285, 25 Ohio St. 2d 59, 54 Ohio Op. 2d 194, 1971 Ohio LEXIS 568, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hooper-ohio-1971.