State v. McKague

178 P.3d 1035
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedMarch 18, 2006
Docket35536-9-II
StatusPublished

This text of 178 P.3d 1035 (State v. McKague) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. McKague, 178 P.3d 1035 (Wash. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

178 P.3d 1035 (2008)

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Ken Duane McKAGUE, Appellant.

No. 35536-9-II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

March 18, 2006.

Carol L. La Verne, Thurston County Prosecutor's Office, Olympia, WA, for Respondent.

Patricia Anne Pethick, Attorney at Law, Tacoma, WA, for Appellant.

VAN DEREN, A.C.J.

¶ 1 Ken McKague[1] appeals his conviction for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, arguing that the trial court erred in *1036 failing to suppress the marijuana evidence law enforcement officers found in his residence. We agree and, therefore, we reverse the trial court's order denying his motion to suppress and remand for further proceedings.

FACTS

¶ 2 The State charged Ken with one count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, more than 40 grams of marijuana, under RCW 69.50.4013.[2] Before trial, Ken moved to suppress the evidence that officers found in the shed where he was staying because the initial search of the shed was conducted without a warrant and did not fall under the plain view doctrine, an exception to the search warrant rule.

¶ 3 At a Criminal Rule (CrR) 3.6 hearing,[3] Thurston County Sheriff's Department Detective Tim Rudloff testified that on November 3, 2005, he, three other members of the Sheriff's Department Special Enforcement Team, and four Department of Corrections (DOC) community corrections officers (CCOs), were apprehending persons with outstanding DOC warrants.[4]

¶ 4 Jay McKague, Ken's brother, had an outstanding DOC felony probation violation warrant[5] that listed his last known address as 13849 SE Solberg Road. Rudloff acknowledged that the DOC warrant showed Jay's address as 13849 SE Solberg Road, but he testified that he did not recall whether he looked at it before searching for Jay.[6] Nonetheless, the officers proceeded to 13903 SE Solberg Road in search of Jay because "[t]hat's basically what [law enforcement] call[s] the McKague family residence. We know that Jay McKague resides there, Ken McKague resides there, [and] . . . their mother resides there as well, and this is the place that we have arrested Jay McKague, at least from my recollection, two times before with Department of Corrections." Report of Proceedings (Aug. 14, 2006) at 6-7.

¶ 5 Rudloff had contacted Jay approximately five times before the day of this incident and four of those times Jay fled from, or attempted to hide from, law enforcement. One time, Jay hid under a pile of clothes in a back bedroom of the main house at 13903 SE Solberg Road and, on a different occasion, he ran out of a side door of the main house and officers chased him approximately 100 yards before apprehending him.

¶ 6 On November 3, the officers surrounded the main house, a 10 by 10 foot shed, and a travel trailer on the property, while Rudloff and CCO Matt Frank went to the front door. Patricia Schultz, Jay and Ken's mother, answered the door. "Frank explained to her *1037 why [they] were there and [that they] were looking for Jay McKague [and] she responded that he wasn't there right now. Officer Frank explained that [they] were going to search the residence like [they] had in the past to ensure that he wasn't there. [And they] did so." RP (Aug. 14, 2006) at 8. Rudloff testified that he did not recall whether Frank obtained permission to search the residence but, rather, told Schultz "that they were actually going to go inside."[7] RP (Aug. 14, 2006) at 24.

¶ 7 When the officers did not find Jay in Schultz's main house, they searched the outbuildings. Rudloff asked Schultz if the officers would find anyone in the outbuildings, but he did not obtain her permission to search them. Rudloff testified that Schultz told him "nobody should be in the travel trailer but [the officers] might run into Ken . . . in the shed in the back yard because he stays there," but she did not know if he was present at the time. RP (Aug. 14, 2006) at 8.

¶ 8 The door to the shed was closed but not locked and, therefore, Rudloff entered it. He observed clothing and furniture, including a couch. Rudloff testified that blankets were covering the space between the couch's armrest and the shed wall, and that there may have been "about a foot between the actual armrest [of the couch] and the wall and then about a foot-and-a-half between the lower part of the couch and the wall." RP (Aug. 14, 2006) at 18. Although Rudloff did not see the blankets moving, and Jay is over six feet tall and weighs approximately 250 pounds, Rudloff believed that Jay could have been hiding under the blankets. He testified that he believed Jay could have been hiding in the small space under the blankets because the side wall of the couch could have been cut out and a "person would be able to lay [sic] completely underneath that couch all the way to the wall, and [that he has], in fact, arrested people in that exact same scenario before."[8] RP (Aug. 14, 2006) at 20.

¶ 9 Therefore, Rudloff pulled back the blankets and found two partially open plastic grocery sacks filled with green vegetable matter that he recognized as marijuana. He also observed two full brown paper sacks under the plastic sacks and smelled an obvious odor of marijuana. Rudloff then lifted up the couch to ensure that Jay was not under it and, thereafter, exited the shed. He telephonically applied for a search warrant,[9] which was granted, and searched the rest of the outbuildings, finding additional marijuana and drug paraphernalia. When Ken subsequently arrived and acknowledged that he lived in the shed, the officers arrested him.

¶ 10 The trial court permitted the State to present the evidence that the officers gathered in the shed and the jury found Ken guilty of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, more than 40 grams of marijuana. The trial court sentenced him to 18 months in prison and 9 to 12 months of community custody.

¶ 11 Ken appeals.

ANALYSIS

¶ 12 Ken challenges the trial court's conclusion, and its factual findings supporting the conclusion, that the officers were justified in entering his residence and that their search falls under the plain view doctrine. This appeal raises the question of what home *1038 privacy rights a person residing with someone under DOC supervision retains under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1 section 7 of the Washington State Constitution.

I. Standard of Review

¶ 13 The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that people have the right "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." And article I, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution provides: "No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law." The Washington State Supreme Court "has held that the home receives heightened constitutional protection." State v. Kull, 155 Wash.2d 80, 84, 118 P.3d 307 (2005). "The heightened protection afforded state citizens against unlawful intrusion into private dwellings places an onerous burden upon the government to show a compelling need to act outside of our warrant requirement." State v. Chrisman, 100 Wash.2d 814, 822, 676 P.2d 419 (1984).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Terry v. Ohio
392 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Payton v. New York
445 U.S. 573 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Steagald v. United States
451 U.S. 204 (Supreme Court, 1981)
State v. Hendrickson
917 P.2d 563 (Washington Supreme Court, 1996)
State v. Bean
572 P.2d 1102 (Washington Supreme Court, 1978)
State v. Bradley
719 P.2d 546 (Washington Supreme Court, 1986)
State v. Ladson
979 P.2d 833 (Washington Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Coahran
620 P.2d 116 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1980)
State v. Rainford
936 P.2d 1210 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1997)
State v. Simms
516 P.2d 1088 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1973)
State v. Chrisman
676 P.2d 419 (Washington Supreme Court, 1984)
State v. Mendez
970 P.2d 722 (Washington Supreme Court, 1999)
State v. Campbell
691 P.2d 929 (Washington Supreme Court, 1984)
Hocker v. Woody
631 P.2d 372 (Washington Supreme Court, 1981)
State v. Acrey
64 P.3d 594 (Washington Supreme Court, 2003)
State v. Kull
118 P.3d 307 (Washington Supreme Court, 2005)
State v. Hatchie
166 P.3d 698 (Washington Supreme Court, 2007)
State v. Levy
132 P.3d 1076 (Washington Supreme Court, 2006)
State v. Meckelson
135 P.3d 991 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2006)
State v. Hatchie
135 P.3d 519 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 P.3d 1035, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mckague-washctapp-2006.