State v. Hunt

335 P.3d 288, 265 Or. App. 231, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1191
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedSeptember 4, 2014
Docket110646544; A149706
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 335 P.3d 288 (State v. Hunt) 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. Hunt, 335 P.3d 288, 265 Or. App. 231, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1191 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

ORTEGA, P. J.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for unlawful possession of heroin, ORS 475.854. She assigns error to the trial court’s denial of her motion to suppress evidence, arguing that the officer stopped her without reasonable suspicion because the informant’s report lacked sufficient “indicia of reliability” to establish reasonable suspicion. Because we conclude that the informant’s report was reliable, we affirm.

This court reviews the denial of a motion to suppress for errors of law and we are bound by the trial court’s findings of historical facts as long as there is constitutionally sufficient evidence in the record to support those findings. State v. Ehly, 317 Or 66, 75, 854 P2d 421 (1993).

On the day in question, a front desk clerk at a Portland motel received several calls from the guests staying in the room next to defendant’s room. In the first call, the guests complained that there were some people outside defendant’s room displaying “twitchy” body movements. They also reported that a “really dirty” Lexus had driven through the motel’s parking lot a couple of times. The clerk walked around the property twice and saw two “girls” standing outside that motel room and an occupied “white Lexus” parked directly in front of the room, which was located on the ground floor of the motel. The clerk took a photo of the car’s license plate. Although the clerk did not see any communication between the people in the Lexus and the “girls” in the room, he assumed that “there [was] association between the two parties.”

About 15 minutes later, the guests called again, telling the clerk that they had seen people inside the Lexus arguing and weighing things on a small scale. The clerk called the police and reported what the guests had told him, but the person who answered his call told him that there was not enough information to send an officer to the scene. About 30 minutes later, the guests called to complain to the clerk for a third time. They told the clerk that they had seen “a cash transaction [between] the girls that were in the room and the people inside the Lexus and then an [233]*233exchange.” The clerk called the police again and reported what the guests had seen; Portland Police Officers Kemple and Almos arrived 10 to 15 minutes later. Kemple was armed, in uniform, and wearing a badge.

Upon the officers’ arrival, the clerk informed them of what the guests had told him, what he had seen when he walked around the property, and that the room was registered in defendant’s name.1 The officers then went to the motel room and knocked on the door. Two women, defendant and Sabin, answered. In a “pretty low-key” manner, Kemple asked them for identification and wrote down their information. He explained that the reason he was there was because “people had suspected them of possibly using drugs [in] the * * * room,” but both women assured him that they had not been using any drugs. Kemple then asked if he could look in their room for drugs and drug paraphernalia, and defendant gave consent to search. Kemple walked around the room, but did not see anything in “plain view.”

Following the search of the room, Kemple returned to the patrol car to run warrant checks on defendant and Sabin while Almos stayed at the room. Upon returning to the room, Kemple announced that the warrant check had “come back clear.” As the officers were getting ready to leave, a gold Lexus drove into the motel parking lot, the driver looked at the officers, and then quickly drove away.

Kemple asked defendant who was in the Lexus and defendant told him it was her boyfriend, Simone. Kemple then asked defendant why she thought Simone drove away so quickly. Defendant, who had become visibly nervous, responded that she “had no idea.” Kemple asked defendant if there was “anything in the room that would make him want to leave and she started to answer [but] her friend Sabin interrupted her and said no.”

[234]*234Kemple then asked defendant if there were drugs in the room and, again, Sabin interrupted and said “no.” Sabin also told Kemple that she and defendant were recovering heroin addicts. Kemple asked Sabin to speak with Almos so that he could speak to defendant privately. During Kemple’s private conversation with defendant, she admitted that she had used heroin about a week before, but stated that she did not have any on her currently. Kemple asked defendant if there was any heroin hidden in the room and defendant told him he could “come in and look.” Kemple then asked defendant if she was taking any medication and, after learning that she was diabetic, asked defendant if she used needles. Defendant acknowledged that she did and pointed to a pink bag. At Kemple’s request, defendant opened the bag, revealing a needle which contained a brown liquid that defendant admitted was heroin. Kemple arrested defendant, gave her Miranda warnings, and put her in a patrol car. A subsequent search conducted pursuant to Sabin’s consent revealed two more needles containing heroin that defendant admitted were hers. Kemple’s manner during the entire encounter with defendant was “low-key,” “polite,” and “relaxed.”

After being charged with unlawful possession of heroin, defendant moved to suppress evidence obtained as a result of the search and seizure, contending that the officers did not have reasonable suspicion to stop her. The trial court denied that motion, concluding that the officers “had reasonable suspicion to investigate the occupants of the [motel] room based on [the] description” that the front desk clerk had given them. The court acknowledged that “[t]heir initial investigation * * * was unfruitful” but found that, at the point the gold Lexus appeared, the officers had “more than reasonable suspicion to continue the stop[.]”

On appeal, defendant renews her argument that, because the informant’s report was not reliable, the officers stopped her without reasonable suspicion. Defendant also argues that, even if the officers initially had reasonable suspicion to stop her, that suspicion dissipated before the officers announced their intention to conduct the warrant check and, therefore, the warrant check amounted to an unlawful stop. Because on appeal the state does not dispute that defendant was stopped, we do not address that issue. [235]*235See State v. Moore, 264 Or App 86, 89, 331 P3d 1027 (2014) (declining to address whether the defendant was stopped where that issue was not raised by the parties). Accordingly, the only issue on appeal is whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution. For the following reasons, we conclude that they did.

A police officer may stop and temporarily detain a person without a warrant in order to make a reasonable inquiry of that person if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person has been or is about to be involved in criminal activity. ORS 131.615(1). An officer has reasonable suspicion if he or she “holds a belief that is reasonable under the totality of the circumstances existing at the time and place the peace officer acts[.]” ORS 131.605(6).

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Related

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
335 P.3d 288, 265 Or. App. 231, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hunt-orctapp-2014.