State v. Kua Vang

636 N.W.2d 329, 2001 Minn. App. LEXIS 1236, 2001 WL 1464415
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedNovember 20, 2001
DocketC4-01-288
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 636 N.W.2d 329 (State v. Kua Vang) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Kua Vang, 636 N.W.2d 329, 2001 Minn. App. LEXIS 1236, 2001 WL 1464415 (Mich. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

OPINION

R.A. RANDALL, Judge.

This is an appeal from a conviction of third-degree eontrolled-substanee offense. Appellant argues that a police officer, along with a probation officer assigned to supervise appellant’s son, unlawfully entered appellant’s home without a warrant to perform a home visit of appellant’s son. Appellant argues that the district court erred in finding consent was given to enter the home, and that if consent was given or implied, the consent did not authorize unannounced entry into appellant’s bedroom and therefore the evidence obtained from that search is fruit of the poisoned tree and should be suppressed. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant Kua Vang was arrested in his home for possession of opium after a probation officer visiting appellant’s son, D.Y., approached appellant’s bedroom and, through an open door, observed Vang smoking opium.

Appellant’s son, D.V., was put on probation for assault in February 1999. The district court ordered that his matter be referred to the Ramsey County Community Corrections Department for probation supervision and that he was “to follow all the recommendations of probation.” The district court gave the Ramsey County Community Human Services Department temporary legal custody of D.V. In August 1999, the Corrections Department placed D.V. on enhanced probation, which occurs when the probationer is a gang member and has a drug charge or violent offense. D.V. and his mother signed the conditions of probation form for enhanced probation, which involved more frequent visits from a probation officer who is often accompanied by a police officer. 1 D.V.’s probation officer is Long Khang. Khang visited the Vang residence and D.V.’s school approximately 30 to 40 times over a four-month period.

On January 6, 2000, Khang and police officer Ghnia Kong went to the Vang home to speak with D.V. about a fight involving D.V. that occurred in early December 1999. Khang testified at the omnibus *332 hearing that he and Kong knocked on the duplex’s main entry, and D.V. answered the door. D.V. opened the exterior door and then walked into the apartment. Khang and Kong followed D.V. through the door to the apartment, which lead into the living room. 2 Khang spoke with D.V. about the December incident, and D.V. admitted to the assault. Khang determined that this was a violation of D.V.’s probation and decided to take him into custody for 24-hour detention.

Khang testified that he heard D.V.’s parents talking in the other room, so he went into the kitchen through the open doorway to talk to them, and while standing in front of appellant’s open bedroom door, he observed appellant smoking opium. He asked D.V.’s parents to come into the living room so he could tell them he was taking D.V. to detention. When Khang returned to the living room, he told Kong that appellant was smoking opium in the bedroom. Appellant immediately came out to the living room and said to Kong, without any prompting, that he was smoking opium because he had a stomachache. He turned around and said, “I show you,” and brought Kong back to his bedroom where Kong saw the drug paraphernalia. Appellant then handed Kong a metal box containing a black solid substance and brown and black paste, saying, “This is what I was smoking.” Kong arrested appellant.

The black solid was analyzed and found to be a mixture containing codeine, morphine, acetylcodeine, and monoacetylmor-phine, weighing 24.3 grams. The brown and black paste also contained morphine and codeine. Appellant was charged with third-degree violation of controlled-substance law, possession of more than 10 grams of a mixture containing morphine and codeine under Minn.Stat. § 152.023, subd. 2(2) (1998).

Appellant challenged the admissibility of the evidence against him at a suppression hearing on the ground that the evidence was obtained through a warrantless search of appellant’s home. The district court ruled that the evidence was admissible and denied appellant’s motion to suppress. Appellant waived his right to a jury trial and submitted the case to the court on stipulated facts, pursuant to State v. Lothenbach, 296 N.W.2d 854, 857 (Minn.1980). The district court found appellant guilty of the charged crime. Appellant now challenges his conviction.

ISSUE

I. Did the district court err in finding that appellant’s son gave consent for the probation officer and police officer to enter appellant’s home?

II. Did the probation officer’s observations of appellant in his bedroom violate appellant’s Fourth Amendment rights?

ANALYSIS

Appellant contends that Khang and Kong entered the Vang residence and appellant’s bedroom without a warrant, consent, or any other lawful reason. He claims that the observations and evidence collected regarding appellant’s charge for possession of a controlled substance should therefore be suppressed.

When reviewing pretrial suppression orders, the appellate court independently reviews the facts and determines, as a matter of law, whether the district *333 court erred in its decision. State v. Harris, 590 N.W.2d 90, 98 (Minn.1999).

“Under the fourth amendment, warrantless searches and seizures are per se unreasonable unless they fall under an established exception.” State v. Hummel, 488 N.W.2d 68, 72 (Minn.1992) (citing Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967)). Consent and exigent circumstances are two of the recognized exceptions. Id. If no exception applies, then the fruits of the warrantless search must be suppressed. Id. (citing Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 484, 83 S.Ct. 407, 415, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)).

I. Consent to Enter Appellant’s Home

“When a search is conducted pursuant to consent however, neither probable cause nor a warrant is required.” State v. Pilot, 595 N.W.2d 511, 519 (Minn.1999) (citation omitted). The defendant need not be the one who consents to the search; rather, consent “may be given by another party who possesses common authority over or other sufficient relationship to the premises.” Id. (alteration in original) (quotations omitted). Voluntariness of consent is determined by the totality of the circumstances. See Schneckloth v. Bustamante, 412 U.S. 218, 224-27, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2046-48, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973) (analyzing determination of voluntary consent); State v. Howard, 373 N.W.2d 596

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Bluebook (online)
636 N.W.2d 329, 2001 Minn. App. LEXIS 1236, 2001 WL 1464415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kua-vang-minnctapp-2001.