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Electronically Filed Supreme Court SCWC-XX-XXXXXXX 22-JUN-2020 07:47 AM
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF HAWAIʻI
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STATE OF HAWAIʻI, Respondent/Plaintiff-Appellant,
vs.
DAWN NAEOLE, Petitioner/Defendant-Appellee.
SCWC-XX-XXXXXXX
CERTIORARI TO THE INTERMEDIATE COURT OF APPEALS (CAAP-XX-XXXXXXX; CR. NO. 1PC161001997)
June 22, 2020
RECKTENWALD, C.J., NAKAYAMA, McKENNA, POLLACK, AND WILSON, JJ.
OPINION OF THE COURT BY WILSON, J.
Among the rights guaranteed by the Constitutions of
the United States and the State of Hawaiʻi is the fundamental
right of the people to be secure in their homes from
unreasonable searches, seizures, and invasions of privacy.
See U.S. Const. amend. IV; Haw. Const. art. I, § 7. “Both the
fourth amendment to the United States Constitution and article
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I, section 7 of the Hawaiʻi Constitution ensure that an
individual’s legitimate expectations of privacy will not be
subjected to unreasonable governmental intrusions.” State v.
Meyer, 78 Hawaiʻi 308, 311-12, 893 P.2d 159, 162-63 (1995).
“Every householder, the good and the bad, the guilty and the
innocent, is entitled to the protection designed to secure the
common interest against unlawful invasion of the house.” Miller
v. United States, 357 U.S. 301, 313 (1958). To safeguard this
constitutional guarantee, “[t]he standards by which any
governmental search is to be judged is always its
reasonableness[.]” State v. Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi 461, 467, 887
P.2d 671, 677 (App. 1995) (quoting State v. Martinez, 59 Haw.
366, 368, 580 P.2d 1282, 1284 (1978)). More specifically, when
the police demand entrance to a person’s home pursuant to a
search warrant, they are constitutionally required to afford the
occupants of the home a “reasonable time” to respond before
forcing entry. State v. Monay, 85 Hawaiʻi 282, 284, 943 P.2d
908, 910 (1997) (quoting Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 468, 887 Hawaiʻi
at 678).
In this case, we consider whether the Honolulu Police
Department (“HPD”) gave Petitioner/Defendant-Appellee Dawn
Naeole (“Naeole”) a reasonable amount of time to respond to
their demand for entry when they executed a search warrant at
her home in the early morning of September 4, 2015. Naeole, who
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was suspected of illegal drug activity, had the front door of
her 900 square foot home broken down at approximately 6:15 a.m.
after the police knocked, announced their presence, and demanded
entry four times within the span of twenty-five seconds. A
police officer heard a female voice inside the house after the
third “knock-and-announce,” but the HPD officers had no reason
to believe that Naeole was fleeing or that any evidence was
being destroyed. Under these circumstances, we hold that the
amount of time afforded to Naeole to respond to the demand for
entry was not reasonable, and thus vacate the Intermediate Court
of Appeals’ (“ICA”) opinion to the contrary.
I. BACKGROUND
On September 4, 2015, HPD officers executed a search
warrant at the home of Naeole, seizing “approximately 952.483
grams of a substance resembling methamphetamine, a medicine
bottle containing 55 Loraz[e]pam tablets, a medicine bottle
containing 79 Tramad[]ol tablets, 17.34 grams of marijuana,
various purported paraphernalia and United States currency.” On
December 27, 2016, Naeole was charged by indictment in the
Circuit Court of the First Circuit (“circuit court”) with one
count of promoting a dangerous drug in the first degree, in
violation of Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes
(“HRS”) § 712-1241(1)(a)(i) (Supp. 2016), two counts of
promoting a harmful drug in the second degree, in violation of
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HRS § 712-1245(1)(a) (2014), one count of promoting a
detrimental drug in the third degree, in violation of HRS § 712-
1249 (2014), and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia, in
violation of HRS § 329-43.5(a) (Supp. 2016). Prior to trial,
Naeole filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained as a
result of the execution of the search warrant. Her motion
claimed that HPD’s execution of the warrant violated HRS § 803-
371 and article I, section 7 of the Constitution of the State of
Hawai‘i.2 Hearings were held on Naeole’s motion to suppress on
January 16 and March 6, 2018.3
During the hearings, HPD Officer Stephen Roe (“Officer
Roe”) testified that sixteen police officers accompanied by a
supervisor executed the search warrant at Naeole’s home. The
1 HRS § 803-37 (Supp. 2017) provides in part:
The officer charged with the warrant, if a house, store, or other building is designated as the place to be searched, may enter it without demanding permission if the officer finds it open. If the doors are shut, the officer shall declare the officer’s office and the officer’s business and demand entrance. If the doors, gates, or other bars to the entrance are not immediately opened, the officer may break them. 2 Article I, section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaiʻi provides:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches, seizures and invasions of privacy shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized or the communications sought to be intercepted. 3 The Honorable Rom A. Trader presided.
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officers were attired in “green [battle dress uniforms], top and
bottom, a load-bearing plate carrier, exterior body armor, a
ballistic helmet” and carrying “either [an] M4 [rifle] and a
sidearm, Glock 21, or just a Glock 21, depending on [their]
role.” They arrived at approximately 6:00 a.m.4 The “perimeter
team” secured the exterior of the home, while the “entry team”
“stack[ed] up or form[ed] a stick in front of the residence
along the wall[.]” Officer Roe, who was in the entry team, was
instructed by his supervisor to initiate the “knock-and-announce
procedure[.]” He conducted the procedure, which consists of
three knocks and an announcement, four times. During the
hearings, Officer Roe demonstrated the four knock-and-announce
procedures for the court: “And it’s basically like this:
(Knocks.) Police. We have a search warrant. Open the door
now. (Knocks.) Police. We have a search warrant. Open the
door now. (Knocks.) Police. We have a search warrant. Open
the door now. (Knocks.) Police. We have a search warrant.
Open the door now.”
Officer Roe testified that there was no response from
within Naeole’s home after the first two knock-and-announce
procedures, but that after the third, he heard a female voice
4 The search warrant provided that it could be served between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on or before September 4, 2015. The circuit court found that the warrant was executed at about 6:15 a.m.
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coming from inside. The voice seemed like it was directed at
the officers, but he could not make out the words. He conducted
a fourth knock-and-announce procedure, but there was no
response. After the fourth knock-and-announce procedure, the
officers on the entry team were instructed by their supervisor
to breach the front door.
Naeole testified during the hearings that she had just
woken up and was right by the hallway, heading toward the
bathroom, when she heard banging and then saw police officers
enter her home. She testified that she didn’t hear any repeated
knocking, any announcement that there were police officers at
the door, or any request or demand to open the door. She
testified that, after they were already in her house, the
officers told her they had a search warrant, but that they
refused to show her the warrant. She testified that her home is
about 900 square feet in size.
Naeole’s neighbor, Zachariah Wentling, also testified
during the hearings. He testified that he came out his front
door when he heard his dogs barking, saw police officers
“wrestling with” or “messing with” Naeole’s front gate, ran back
into his house to grab his phone, and, when he came back out,
saw the officers break down Naeole’s front door. He testified
that when he came back outside, he saw the officers bang on the
door, say, “This is the police[,]” and then, without waiting for
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a response, brake down the door. A video he recorded on his
phone which showed the officers breaking down the front door of
Naeole’s home was entered into evidence at the hearings.
The circuit court granted Naeole’s motion to suppress
and ordered that all evidence seized as a result of the
execution of the search warrant would be inadmissible at trial.
The court found that Officer Roe’s testimony was “credible and
compelling[,]” and that, based on his in-court demonstration,
the four knock-and-announce procedures took place “in a span of
about twenty-five seconds” with “no discernable pause” between
each one. The court also found that the officers “heard voices”
after the third knock-and-announce procedure, but that “there
was no evidence that the occupants were aware of the police
presence and were taking steps to destroy any evidence, that
would justified [sic] breaching the door based on exigent
circumstances.” It concluded that, although HPD had complied
with the requirements of HRS § 803-37, its execution of the
search warrant violated Naeole’s right against unreasonable
searches and seizures under article I, section 7 of the Hawaiʻi
Constitution.
The State appealed the circuit court’s order to the
ICA. The ICA vacated the circuit court’s order, holding that,
“[u]nder the circumstances of this case, . . . Naeole was
afforded a reasonable amount of time to respond to HPD’s demand
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for entry to serve the search warrant.” State v. Naeole, No.
CAAP-XX-XXXXXXX, 2019 WL 2067113, at *4 (App. May 10, 2019)
(mem.). Naeole filed an application for writ of certiorari with
this court, which was granted.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
“The appellate court reviews a circuit court’s ruling
on a motion to suppress de novo to determine whether the ruling
was right or wrong.” State v. Williams, 114 Hawaiʻi 406, 409,
163 P.3d 1143, 1146 (2007) (internal quotation marks omitted)
(quoting State v. Kauhi, 86 Hawaiʻi 195, 197, 948 P.2d 1036, 1038
(1997)).
III. DISCUSSION
The “knock-and-announce” procedure is not a mere
formality or police tactic; it is an essential restraint on the
power of the State which has deep roots in both the Anglo-
American and Hawaiian legal systems. See Miller, 357 U.S. at
313 (“The requirement of prior notice of authority and purpose
before forcing entry into a home is deeply rooted in our
heritage and should not be given grudging application.”);
Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 465, 887 P.2d at 675 (tracing the modern
knock-and-announce statute back to the 1869 Penal Code of the
Hawaiian Kingdom and The King v. Ah Lou You, 3 Haw. 393 (1872)).
“The search warrant serves to protect individuals’
constitutional right to be ‘secure in their persons, houses,
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papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.
. . .’” State v. Diaz, 100 Hawaiʻi 210, 218, 58 P.3d 1257, 1265
(2002) (quoting Hawaiʻi Const. art. I, § 7). The purpose of the
search and seizure provision of the Hawaiʻi constitution, and the
fourth amendment to the United States Constitution, is to
“safeguard individuals from the arbitrary, oppressive, and
harassing conduct of government officials.” Id. at 217-18, 220,
58 P.3d at 1264-65, 1267. The knock-and-announce rule is one
mechanism that protects this right. Id. Its purpose is to give
the “person time to respond, avoid violence and protect privacy
as much as possible.” State v. Quesnel, 79 Hawaiʻi 185, 191, 900
P.2d 182, 188 (App. 1995)(citing Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 468, 887
P.2d at 678).
HRS § 803-37 defines the knock-and-announce rule and
outlines the powers of a police officer charged with the
execution of a search warrant. The statute is intended to “(1)
reduce the potential of violence to both occupants and police
resulting from an unannounced entry; (2) prevent unnecessary
property damage; and (3) protect the occupant’s right of
privacy.” State v. Dixon, 83 Hawaiʻi 13, 14, 924 P.2d 181, 182
(1996). Compliance with the statute decreases the potential for
violence and unnecessary property damage. State v. Harada, 98
Hawaiʻi 18, 28, 41 P.3d 174, 184 (2002). If the officer charged
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with execution of a search warrant finds that the doors of the
place to be searched are shut, the statute requires “three steps
. . . before the officer may physically break into the place to
be searched—that the officer state his or her office, that he or
she state his or her business, and that he or she demand
entrance.” Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 465, 887 P.2d at 675. The
third step requires the officer to “expressly demand
entrance[.]” Monay, 85 Hawaiʻi at 284, 943 P.3d at 910.
“[O]rally communicat[ing]” a demand for entry “in the same way
the police announce their office and purpose” constitutes such
an express demand. Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 466, 887 P.2d at 676.
In the present case, no party challenges the circuit court’s
conclusion that HPD complied with the statutory requirements of
HRS § 803-37.
What is at issue in this case is whether HPD gave
Naeole or any other occupants of her home a reasonable amount of
time to respond to their demand for entry. HRS § 803-37
provides that an officer executing a search warrant may break
“the doors, gates, or other bars to the entrance” if they “are
not immediately opened[.]” (Emphasis added). However, we have
held that a literal construction of the term “immediately” would
contravene the constitutional right to be free of unreasonable
searches, seizures, and invasions of privacy. Monay, 85 Hawaiʻi
at 284, 943 P.2d at 910; see Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 467, 887 P.2d
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at 677 (“The protection against unreasonable searches would mean
very little if the police, armed with a search warrant, were
authorized to break down the door of someone’s premises unless
there was an ‘instant’ response.”); Haw. Const. art. I, § 7.
Thus, we have held that, “absent the existence of exigent
circumstances, police must afford occupants of a place to be
searched a ‘reasonable time’ to respond to an announcement
before forcing entry.” Monay, 85 Hawaiʻi at 284, 943 P.2d at 910
(quoting Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 468, 887 P.2d at 678). Allowing a
reasonable time to respond gives an occupant “sufficient
opportunity to respond to authority” and “to surrender his or
her privacy voluntarily” “before a forcible entry is made.”
Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 467, 887 P.2d at 677 (citations and
brackets omitted). Without it, the request for entry is
meaningless. Quesnel, 79 Hawaiʻi at 190, 900 P.2d at 187.
“[W]hat would constitute a reasonable period of time
to respond to a knock and announcement must be determined by the
circumstances of each case.” Monay, 85 Hawaiʻi at 284, 943 P.2d
at 910 (quoting Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 468, 887 P.2d at 678).
Pursuant to our constitution, we have not adopted a general or
“bright-line” rule for what constitutes a reasonable amount of
time in all cases, or even in a subset of cases, as is urged by
the parties in this case. Rather, our appellate courts have
appropriately determined what constitutes a reasonable period of
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time by considering the totality of the circumstances in each
individual case. Cf. United States v. Banks, 540 U.S. 31, 36
(2003) (“[W]e have treated reasonableness as a function of the
facts of cases so various that no template is likely to produce
sounder results than examining the totality of the circumstances
in a given case; it is too hard to invent categories without
giving short shrift to details that turn out to be important in
a given instance, and without inflating marginal ones.”).
In Garcia, police officers executed a search warrant
at a small apartment unit at 7:07 p.m. 77 Hawaiʻi at 464, 464
n.1, 887 P.3d at 674, 674 n.1. A police officer knocked on the
door of the apartment and announced, “Police, search warrant.”
Id. at 464, 887 P.2d at 674. The officer could hear voices
inside, which he believed to be either people talking or voices
from a television, but no one responded to his knock-and-
announce. Id. The officer then pulled open the locked exterior
screen door of the apartment and ordered another officer to kick
open the interior wooden door. Id. “Approximately ten (10)
seconds elapsed from the time [the officer] knocked and
announced to the time forcible entry was made into the . . .
apartment.” Id. The ICA reversed the circuit court’s denial of
the defendant’s motion to suppress, holding that allowing the
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occupants of the apartment less than ten seconds to respond was
“constitutionally unreasonable.”5 Id. at 469, 887 P.2d at 679.
Six months after deciding Garcia, the ICA issued a
similar opinion in State v. Quesnel, 79 Hawaiʻi 185, 900 P.2d
182. In Quesnel, police officers executed a search warrant at
the defendants’ home at approximately 6:45 p.m. Id. at 188, 900
P.2d at 185. An officer pounded on the door and yelled,
“Police. Search warrant[,]” and then kicked in the door when no
one answered. Id. The circuit court found that the entire
process, from the knock to the entry, lasted approximately ten
seconds, and that the police “counted ‘one, two, three’” between
making the announcement and kicking open the door, although
there was conflicting evidence suggesting that as many as five
seconds may have elapsed between the announcement and the forced
entry. Id. at 189-90, 900 P.2d at 186-87. The ICA reversed the
circuit court’s denial of the defendants’ motion to suppress,
holding that, whether it was three or five seconds, the amount
of time to respond was not reasonable.6 Id. at 190, 900 P.2d at
187.
5 The ICA also held, in the alternative, that the evidence had to be suppressed because the officer did not make an express demand for entry, in violation of HRS § 803-37 (1985). Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 466, 887 P.2d at 676. 6 As in Garcia, the ICA also held that the evidence had to be suppressed because the officer did not make an express demand for entry, in violation of HRS § 803-37 (1985). Quesnel, 79 Hawaiʻi at 189-90, 900 P.2d at 186-87.
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In Monay, police officers executed a search warrant at
an apartment at 11:05 a.m. 85 Hawaiʻi at 283, 943 P.2d at 909.
Officers approached the closed front door of the apartment and
an officer “knocked on the door and announced, ‘police, search
warrant,’ but did not expressly demand entrance. The officers
heard no suspicious sound or movement inside the apartment.
Within two seconds of the announcement, [the officer] opened the
unlocked door, and the officers entered the apartment.” Id.
This court, embracing the reasoning of Garcia, reversed the
circuit court’s denial of the defendants’ motion to suppress,
holding that “the forced entry by police two seconds after the
knock and announcement was constitutionally insufficient to give
the occupants a reasonable opportunity to respond.”7 Id. at 285,
943 P.2d at 911.
In State v. Diaz, police officers executed a search
warrant at a video store at approximately 6:45 p.m., during the
store’s regular business hours. 100 Hawaiʻi at 213, 58 P.3d at
1260. Upon entering the store, a detective asked a customer if
a door on the makai side of the store was an office door. Id.
After the detective received an affirmative response, an officer
knocked three times on the office door and stated, “[P]olice
7 We also held, in the alternative, that the evidence had to be suppressed because the officer did not make an express demand for entry, in violation of HRS § 803-37 (1993). Monay, 85 Hawaiʻi at 284, 943 P.2d at 910.
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department, search warrant[,]” but there was no response. Id.
After waiting approximately fifteen seconds, the officer was
instructed to break the door, which he did by kicking it in.
Id. Although this court held that HRS § 803-37 (1993) is
inapplicable to a search of the interior office of a commercial
establishment that is open for business, we nevertheless held
that a reasonable expectation of privacy did exist and that the
police were required to give the defendant a reasonable amount
of time to respond. Id. at 219-21, 58 P.3d at 1266-68.
However, we upheld that circuit court’s denial of the
defendant’s motion to suppress, holding that, “[u]nder the
circumstances of this case, expecting the occupant of the
interior office to be alert and responsive during business hours
is reasonable[,]” and that forced entry after fifteen seconds
was thus constitutional. Id. at 221, 58 P.3d at 1268.
Considering the totality of the circumstances in the
present case, we conclude that the amount of time HPD gave the
occupants of Naeole’s home to respond to their requests for
entry was not reasonable. The circuit court found that Officer
Roe conducted the knock-and-announce procedure four times within
the span of about twenty-five seconds without any discernable
pause between each one. This is not a reasonable amount of time
to expect the occupant of a modestly-sized home to respond to an
early morning demand for entry. At the time HPD executed the
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search warrant, most people would be expected to be asleep, just
waking up, or otherwise indisposed by the customary activities
of the early morning, such as showering, getting dressed, or
eating breakfast.8 In other words, it was not reasonable to
expect the occupants of Naeole’s home to be “alert and
responsive” during the early morning hours. Id. Furthermore,
Officer Roe did not “discernabl[y] pause” between each knock-
and-announce procedure, even after hearing a voice that may have
been directed at the HPD officers. Not pausing between
announcements and not allowing additional time to respond after
hearing a voice from inside the home would have made it
difficult for an occupant of the home to indicate compliance and
voluntarily submit to the officers’ authority. We note that
there was no evidence that the search of Naeole’s home presented
a risk to officer safety. We hold that giving an occupant only
8 Our analysis need not take into account Naeole’s testimony that she was actually awake at the time HPD breached her front door. “[U]nder article 1, section 7 of our constitution, the focus is on whether the officer’s actions are constitutionally reasonable.” Diaz, 100 Hawaiʻi at 230, 58 P.3d at 1277 (emphasis added); see Garcia, 77 Hawaiʻi at 467, 887 P.2d at 671 (“[T]he constitution mandates that police conduct in executing a search warrant must be reasonable.” (emphasis added)). Thus, “the facts known to the police are what count in judging reasonable waiting time[.]” Banks, 540 U.S. at 39. There is no evidence in the record that the police knew that any occupant of Naeole’s home was awake and active when the first demand for entry was made.
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twenty-five seconds to respond at such an early morning hour is
unreasonable.9
In fact, there were no exigent circumstances that
would have justified breaching the door earlier than would have
otherwise been reasonable. Exigent circumstances are those
under which “the demands of the occasion reasonably call for an
immediate police response.” State v. Lloyd, 61 Haw. 505, 512,
606 P.2d 913, 918 (1980). Such circumstances exist where there
is an imminent threat of harm to a person, where there is a
danger of serious property damage, where a suspect is likely to
escape, or where evidence is likely to be removed or destroyed.
Id. “Since drugs are by their nature easily destroyed or
secreted,” exigent circumstances in cases involving searches for
drugs “exist when the facts show that the occupants of the
suspected locale are aware of the police presence and are taking
steps which the police realistically fear may lead to
destruction of the contraband.” State v. Davenport, 55 Haw. 90,
99, 516 P.2d 65, 71-72 (1973); see Lloyd, 61 Haw. at 512-13, 606
P.2d at 918-19 (sounds of “scurrying” and “crashing” within the
house that might have indicated that a suspect was fleeing or
9 Our opinion should not be construed to express any position as to whether a time period greater or less than 25 seconds at a later time of the day or based on different circumstances would be a reasonable amount of time to respond to a knock-and-announce procedure, as what constitutes a reasonable period of time must be determined by the circumstances of each case.
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that evidence was being removed or destroyed constituted exigent
circumstances); cf. Quesnel, 79 Hawaiʻi at 191, 900 P.2d at 188
(“The State did not submit any evidence that the police, after
knocking and announcing, heard frantic movement or flushing
toilets or other signals that the occupants were attempting to
destroy or hide evidence.”). However, the mere fact that drugs
are involved in a case, and that drugs are generally easy to
remove, hide, or destroy, does not introduce exigent
circumstances into all drug-related cases. State v. Dorson, 62
Haw. 377, 385, 615 P.2d 740, 746 (1980). In this case, although
the search was for evidence of drug offenses, there were no
exigent circumstances, and thus, the occupants of Naeole’s home
were entitled to a reasonable opportunity to respond.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the ICA’s memorandum
opinion and judgment on appeal are vacated, the circuit court’s
order granting Naeole’s motion to suppress is affirmed, and the
case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings
consistent with this opinion.
Phyllis J. Hironaka /s/ Mark E. Recktenwald for Petitioner /s/ Paula A. Nakayama Brian R. Vincent for Respondent /s/ Sabrina S. McKenna
/s/ Richard W. Pollack
/s/ Michael D. Wilson