State v. Ketchum

34 P.3d 1006, 97 Haw. 107
Hawaii Supreme Court·Decided November 20, 2001·No. 23745·Published·Cited by 60 cases

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by

LEVINSON, J.

The plaintiff-appellant State of Hawaii [hereinafter, the “prosecution”] appeals from the findings of fact (FOFs), conclusions of law (COLs), and order of the first circuit court, the Honorable Russell Blair presiding, granting the defendant-appellee Burt T. Ket-chum’s motion to suppress. On appeal, the prosecution asserts that the circuit court erred in suppressing Ketchum’s responses, on three separate occasions, to Honolulu Police Department (HPD) officers’ questions regarding his residential address; in each instance, he indicated that his address was 91-467B Fort Weaver Road. Specifically, the prosecution contends that COL Nos. 5 through 91 are wrong and, therefore, that the circuit court erroneously concluded that the officers had subjected Ketehum to “custodial interrogation,” on two of the occasions, without first informing him, inter alia, of his constitutional right against self-incrimination and, on the third occasion, in disregard of Ketchum’s invocation of his constitutional right to remain silent. We disagree and, accordingly, affirm the circuit court’s order granting Ketchum’s motion to suppress.

I. BACKGROUND

At approximately 7:00 a.m. on January 26, 2000, a team of law enforcement officers from three different HPD divisions executed a search warrant upon a residence located at 91-467B Fort Weaver Road.2 The team included approximately forty “Specialized Services Division” (SSD) officers, between twelve and fifteen “Nareotics-Vice Division” (NVD) officers, and approximately eight officers from the “Crime Reduction Unit” (CRU). Prior to executing the warrant, the officers were briefed; the SSD officers, in particular, were informed that they would be “raiding]” a residence and that the object of the raid was to find drug contraband.

SSD Officer Alan Masaki’s assignment, as a member of the SSD “entry team,”3 was to enter the residence and “secure” the occupants. The entry team knocked on the residence’s front door, announced them office and purpose, and, receiving no response from anyone within, forced open the front door. Of the nine members of the “entry team” [112] who initially entered the residence, Officer Masaki was “in position number four.” Officer Masaki testified at the suppression hearing that he was the first officer to enter the master bedroom [hereinafter, “Bedroom 1”], in which he “located” Ketchum and codefend-ant Donna Mae Wright “on the bed.”4 He “secured” Ketchum and Wright and, although Ketchum was not immediately handcuffed, Officer Masaki acknowledged at the suppression hearing that Ketchum, nonetheless, was “detained” and “not free to leave.”

“[AJbout a minute or so” after entering the bedroom, Officer Masaki asked Ketchum for his “personal information,” including his residential address;5 Ketchum replied in relevant part that he resided at 91-467B Fort Weaver Road. Ketchum was not handcuffed at the time Officer Masaki requested his address. As noted supra in note 4, it appears, however, that Officer Masaki, before asking Ketchum for his personal information, had ordered Ketchum and Wright to “show [him] them hands,” an order they both “complied [with] without incident.” Officer Ma-saki did not “advise [Ketchum] of his constitutional rights” before questioning Ketchum, and the record contains no indication that he did so at any point during them encounter.

According to Officer Masaki, his purpose in asking Ketchum to provide his address was to include it in a “follow-up report to identify the occupant that I located.”6 At the suppression hearing, Officer Masaki asserted that obtaining such personal information was “normal procedure” and that, while the personal information he obtained from Ketchum was also obtained for “booking purposes” at the time an arrestee is formally “booked,” he did not obtain Ketchum’s address for booking purposes.

Officer Masaki also testified that he was aware, due to his training as a police officer, that establishing Ketchum’s address as the same as that where drug contraband was found would assist in prosecuting him for constructive possession of any drug contraband subsequently discovered in the residence. However, Officer Masaki denied questioning Ketchum “in any way about this particular investigation.” Officer Masaki’s encounter with Ketchum lasted only “a few minutes,” which ended when he “turned [Ketchum and Wright] over,” “without any incident,” to the NVD officers.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the “entry team” had “secured” the other occupants of the residence. In a second bedroom [hereinafter, “Bedroom 2”], officers located two of Wright’s teenage sons and her teenage daughter and, in the living room, Wright’s third son, also a teenager. According to HPD Officer George Flores,7 who prepared an affidavit that the prosecution submitted to the circuit court in connection with the preliminary hearing conducted in this matter, [113] “[ejveryone within the residence w[as] detained.” Once the SSD officers gave an “all clear sign,” the occupants were “turned over” to the NVD officers.8

Within approximately ten minutes of his encounter with Officer Masaki, Ketehum was photographed in Bedroom 1 and escorted, together with the other occupants of the residence, to a “central location”'—in this case, the residence’s garage. At some point during this time frame, an officer “flex handcuffed” Ketehum “with plastic ties.”

NVD Detective Robert Towne’s assignment was to “supervise the men assigned to do what we call the booking,” which occurred in the garage. Detective Towne testified at the suppression hearing that, once the SSD entry team indicated that “all [is] clear,” the occupants were photographed where they were found within the residence and then moved to the garage so that they could be “booked.”9 He first encountered Ketehum, already “flex handcuffed,” in the garage. At the suppression hearing, Detective Towne testified that, while he recalled assigning an officer the task of “booking” Ketehum in the garage, he did not specifically recall the officer’s identity. Detective Towne acknowledged that, at the time Ketehum was in the garage, he was in “custody” and “not free to leave.”

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State v. Ketchum, 34 P.3d 1006, 97 Haw. 107 (haw 2001).

34 P.3d 1006 (State v. Ketchum) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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