State v. Miller

340 P.3d 740, 267 Or. App. 382, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1656
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided December 3, 2014·No. 11C43232; A150565·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinion

EGAN, J.

Defendant was driving a car when the police stopped him for a traffic infraction. In the course of that stop, the officers came to believe that defendant was under the influence of a controlled substance. The officers questioned defendant and his passenger about controlled-substance use and requested that another officer bring a drug-detection dog to the scene to perform a sniff of the car. The dog alerted to the car; the officers then searched it and discovered heroin and related paraphernalia. In this appeal from the ensuing judgment of conviction for delivery of a controlled substance, defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his pretrial motion to suppress that evidence. He argues that, under State v. Rodgers/Kirkeby, 347 Or 610, 227 P3d 695 (2010), the officers unlawfully extended the traffic stop by commencing a drug investigation and that the extension of the stop was not supported by a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. For the reasons below, we conclude that the trial court correctly denied defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the beginning of the stop to the point at which the officers deployed the dog. However, we agree with defendant that the deployment of the drug-detection dog unlawfully prolonged the stop, was not supported by an objectively reasonable suspicion that drugs were in the car, and that suppression of the evidence obtained as a result of the dog’s deployment was required in consequence.

We review the trial court’s denial of the motion to suppress for legal error. State v. Ehly, 317 Or 66, 854 P2d 421 (1993). The trial court in this case did not make any explicit factual findings; therefore, where there is evidence from which particular facts could be decided in more than one way, we will presume that the court found the facts in a manner consistent with its legal conclusion so long as there is evidence in the record that would support those findings. State v. Juarez-Godinez, 326 Or 1, 7, 924 P2d 772 (1997).

Defendant was driving in front of a police cruiser when he made a turn without first signaling for at least 100 feet as required by ORS 811.335(l)(b). Salem Police Officer Gould was driving the police cruiser. Officer Horn was with [384] him. They signaled for defendant to stop. Defendant turned into the parking lot of a grocery store; he drove very slowly for approximately 50 yards, passing several open parking spaces before turning into one and stopping. There was one passenger in defendant’s vehicle. It was 1:12 p.m. Gould approached to speak with defendant, and Horn approached to speak with the passenger. Gould asked for defendant’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. In return, defendant provided him with a student identification card and stated that his license was suspended. Defendant also explained that the car belonged to a friend. Gould asked defendant questions about who owned the car, how defendant had come to be driving it, and where defendant lived. Throughout their conversation, Gould noticed that defendant appeared “very nervous” and that he was shaking. Gould also took note of defendant’s “very slow” responses to his questions, which were delivered in a “monotone” voice and only after a “noticeable delay.” Gould knew, from his experience and training, that those symptoms “oftentimes” resulted from controlled-substance use, and he began to look for other such symptoms. In that vein, he observed that defendant’s pupils were “overly constricted,” given the light of that day; he also observed needle marks on the inside of defendant’s right arm. Gould knew, from experience and training, that hypodermic needle injections often left such marks. Gould testified that, within a minute of their initial contact, he believed that defendant was “likely under the influence of, for example, a narcotic analgesic.”

Gould asked defendant what the needle marks were from; defendant replied that he had incurred them from drug use about a year before, but that he had not recently been using. Gould did not believe that explanation. As he later explained at the hearing on the motion to suppress:

“The marks appeared to be fairly fresh — recent that — I mean, and you can tell the difference between a recent bruise on somebody’s arm as opposed to a scar, or a permanent mark that — of something that would have happened a year before. So it was plainly obvious to me, even though I’m not a doctor * * * of those that I’ve seen in the past, that it was very recent that those — those had been — been, you know — needles had been used on the arm.”

[385] Gould also explained that he believed that defendant had controlled substances in the vehicle:

“Well, in my mind, without questioning him, there was either something going on with the use, or — or sales of controlled substances. Oftentimes, they go hand-in-hand. Based on my observations on the initial — the reaction of the initial vehicle to it going at a very delayed place through the parking lot, contacting the driver, my physical observations of him, noticing track marks, his admitted use of — of narcotics, whether they were — -you know, even though I saw the signs of recent use, but he said that he’d used a year ago, I believe that there was * * * at the very least, use of * * * controlled substances going on in — likely in the vehicle.”

Gould continued to question defendant; defendant provided Gould with what Gould considered “vague” answers. Gould asked why he had turned into the parking lot; defendant said that he had done so in order to pick up a friend. Gould asked why he was meeting the friend; defendant paused, looked around, and said, “To go to the bank.” Gould asked why he was going to the bank; after another pause, defendant replied that the friend owed him $40. Gould asked what the debt was for; defendant said that it was from a long time ago. Gould later testified that he asked those questions as part of a “drug investigation.”

While Gould was talking with defendant, Horn was talking to defendant’s passenger, Foster. Foster told Horn that they had arrived in the parking lot to meet a friend and take the friend to “a patio job.” After Horn informed Gould of that inconsistency with defendant’s story, Gould returned to his cruiser in order to run routine “wants checks,” to investigate the status of defendant’s driving privileges, and to fill out citations for the vehicular infractions that he had observed.1 Gould testified that it took him two minutes to run the background-type checks and three to four minutes to complete each of two different citations for the vehicular infractions.

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State v. Miller, 340 P.3d 740, 267 Or. App. 382, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 1656 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

340 P.3d 740 (State v. Miller) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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