State v. Medcalf

795 P.2d 158, 58 Wash. App. 817, 1990 Wash. App. LEXIS 310
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedAugust 14, 1990
Docket11877-7-II
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 795 P.2d 158 (State v. Medcalf) 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. Medcalf, 795 P.2d 158, 58 Wash. App. 817, 1990 Wash. App. LEXIS 310 (Wash. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

Reed, J.

— Brian Medcalf appeals his second degree statutory rape conviction. He contends that the trial court erred in refusing to suppress evidence seized under a defective warrant, and in permitting testimony regarding his possession of X-rated videotapes. We affirm.

Medcalf first came to the attention of the authorities as one of the participants in a knife fight at a Bremerton apartment complex. Police officers who responded to the emergency learned that the fight had been prompted by the claims of 11-year-old Gigi that Medcalf had sexually assaulted her and that the other combatant was the fiance of Gigi's mother, Julia. On the basis of this information, the officers made a telephonic request for a search warrant. The affiant was David Boynton, one of the officers at the scene. He told the judge:

me. boynton: Okay. We had at about 2030 hours on 9-18 of '87 a eleven-year-old female by the name of Gigi, that is G-I G-I . . ., date of birth of 4-14-76 was asked by a white male by the name of Brian S. Medcalf, M-e-d-c-a-l-f, of 704 Chester, Apartment 316, which is in the city limits of Bremer-ton, Washington, Kitsap County, to come to his apartment for two dollars to help clean inside the apartment, which again is Apartment 316. Once GiGi was inside, Mr. Medcalf told her that he didn't want her to clean, but he wanted her to come over and sit on his lap. . . .
mr. boynton: ... He gave her ten dollars at that particular point in time and started to unbutton her blouse and feel her breast area. He then laid her down on the floor. She repeatedly said, "No, no, I don't want to do this." He then pulled down her pants, and with an erect penis went to force it into her vagina area. He made slight penetration, and then climaxed with semen in the vagina area and on the floor. He then proceeded to wipe it up with a pair of white men's underwear, and *820 also used a maroon towel. She then left the area, went upstairs, told her mother by the name of Julia . . ., who then advised her fiance, who went downstairs, confronted Mr. Medcalf. A verbal or physical dispute erupted in the hallway where Mr. Medcalf allegedly pulled a knife. Threats were exchanged, a few physical punches. Mr. Medcalf then retreated to his apartment and the Bremerton Police Department showed up, contacted Mr. Medcalf outside of his apartment. Mr. Medcalf was placed under arrest.

The warrant was issued, and the search turned up a knife, a pair , of white undérshorts, and a reddish-brown towel. The towel and the undershorts, as well as Gigi's underpants, all bore stains that were found to contain spermatozoa. Tests of the stains on the undershorts and the towel indicated that the secretor's blood type was O, the same as Medcalf s. The concentration of seminal fluid in Gigi's underpants was insufficient to permit determination of the secretor's blood type. At trial, Gigi identified the towel and the undershorts as those she had seen in Med-calf s apartment and testified to the circumstances of the crime, providing generally the same information excerpted above from the affidavit.

Medcalf sought unsuccessfully to suppress the evidence seized from his apartment. He contended below, as he does here, that the affidavit supporting the search warrant did not adequately establish the informant's reliability because it failed to specifically identify that individual. The trial court found that the information supplied was sufficient to justify the conclusion that the informant was either the victim, her mother, or her mother's fiancee, and established probable cause to search. We agree.

When an affidavit in support of a search warrant contains hearsay information, the constitutional criteria for determining probable cause is measured by the 2-prong Aguilar-Spinelli test. State v. Lair, 95 Wn.2d 706, 709, 630 P.2d 427 (1981). To satisfy that test, the person requesting the warrant must show that (1) the information is reliable, and (2) the informant's basis of information is credible. Aguilar v. Texas, 378 U.S. 108, 114, 12 L. Ed. 2d 723, 84 S. *821 Ct. 1509 (1964); Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 413, 21 L. Ed. 2d 637, 89 S. Ct. 584 (1969); State v. Smith, 110 Wn.2d 658, 662, 756 P.2d 722 (1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1042, 102 L. Ed. 2d 991, 109 S. Ct. 867 (1989). In making this determination, the court is to resolve doubts in favor of the warrant. State v. Helmka, 86 Wn.2d 91, 93, 542 P.2d 115 (1975). It should interpret the affidavit in a commonsense and realistic fashion, recognizing that affidavits for search warrants are normally drafted by nonlawyers in the midst and haste of a criminal investigation. See United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 108, 13 L. Ed. 2d 684, 689, 85 S. Ct. 741 (1965). The magistrate is entitled to draw reasonable inferences from the facts and circumstances set forth. State v. Smith, 110 Wn.2d at 663. Such inferences can relate to the identity of the informant. See United States v. Melvin, 596 F.2d 492, 497 (1st Cir. 1979) (it was reasonable to infer that the "unknown male" to which the affidavit referred was a bystander witness), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 837 (1980); State v. Matlock, 27 Wn. App. 152, 155, 616 P.2d 684 (1980) (reasonable to assume that "officer” providing information was a police officer, rather than an officer in a corporation or an officer in the military).

Here, the numerous explicit details about the crime that were provided in the affidavit strongly suggest that the informant, or one of the informants, was the victim herself, or her mother who had heard her immediate account of the incident. 1 It is highly unlikely that anyone else would have known all of those facts. See State v. Hett, 31 Wn. App. 849, 852, 644 P.2d 1187, review denied, 97 Wn.2d 1027 (1982), holding that informant's detailed description of sale and storage of marijuana indicated that he was not relying *822 on casual rumor, but had personally observed the matters about which he provided information.

Officer Boynton's affidavit provided the identities and address of Gigi and her mother. Identified citizen informants such as they are entitled to a presumption of reliability because the danger of casual rumor, irresponsible conjecture, or general troublemaking is substantially minimized in such cases, and the report is less likely to be colored by self-interest. State v. Wakeley, 29 Wn. App.

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Bluebook (online)
795 P.2d 158, 58 Wash. App. 817, 1990 Wash. App. LEXIS 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-medcalf-washctapp-1990.