State v. Proell

2007 ND 17, 726 N.W.2d 591, 2007 N.D. LEXIS 11, 2007 WL 273704
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 2007
Docket20060222
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2007 ND 17 (State v. Proell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Proell, 2007 ND 17, 726 N.W.2d 591, 2007 N.D. LEXIS 11, 2007 WL 273704 (N.D. 2007).

Opinion

CROTHERS, Justice.

[¶ 1] Jerald V. Proell appeals from the criminal judgment and the district court’s decision denying the motion to suppress evidence seized during his arrest under a federal arrest warrant. The district court found probable cause supported the original search warrants leading to the issuance of the federal arrest warrant. Proell contends the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence because probable cause did not exist to support the original search warrants and therefore evidence obtained from the search incident to arrest was inadmissible. We affirm the district court judgment.

[¶ 2] Proell was arrested at his residence under a federal arrest warrant on September 27, 2005. Arresting officers found methamphetamine and a glass smoking pipe containing residue in Proell’s front sweatshirt pocket. Proell was charged in state court with possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of methamphetamine. He-was also charged in federal court on weapons charges resulting from evidence seized during his arrest.

[¶ 3] In October of 2005, Proell moved in federal court to suppress evidence seized during the search, but his motion was denied. He has appealed the United States District Court’s denial of his motion to suppress to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. In May of 2006, Proell also moved in state court to suppress evidence seized during the search, contending the federal arrest warrant was issued on the basis of previous illegal search warrants. He argued the evidence seized under the federal arrest warrant was “fruit of the poisonous tree” and should be suppressed. Proell’s motion to suppress in state court was denied.

I

[¶ 4] Proell asserts this Court must stay our proceedings or remand to the state district court pending the outcome of his federal appeal on the denial of his motion to suppress evidence because *593 the state is in privity with the federal prosecutors and that both prosecutions are “one and the same.” He argues estoppel and a reversal by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on his motion to suppress evidence will bind this Court and preclude a contrary ruling. Proell’s argument fails for several reasons.

[¶ 5] First, the North Dakota and federal prosecutions are not “one and the same” and the two jurisdictions are not acting in privity with one another. North Dakota is prosecuting Proell for unlawful possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia under state law. The federal prosecution stems from Proell’s illegal possession of firearms under United States law. The prosecutions are therefore quite different, even though their origin is connected.

[¶ 6] Second, North Dakota is a sovereign, separate from the federal government. See Heath v. Alabama, 474 U.S. 82, 88, 106 S.Ct. 433, 88 L.Ed.2d 387 (1985). Each state’s power to prosecute is derived from its inherent sovereignty, not from the federal government. Id. at 89, 106 S.Ct. 433. When prosecuting entities are separate sovereigns, as they are here, the circumstances of the case and the specific interests of each sovereign are irrelevant. Id. at 92, 106 S.Ct. 433. As a result of our inherent sovereignty, state court proceedings are not ancillary to federal proceedings and this Court is not in privity with, or bound by, the federal court’s decision on Proell’s motion to suppress evidence.

[I]f a federal court suppresses certain evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds, that ruling does not foreclose a state court from holding that this same evidence is admissible against the same defendant in a state prosecution. By the same-token, if certain evidence was ruled inadmissible on Fourth Amendment grounds in a state prosecution, and the defendant benefitting from that ruling is later subjected to a federal prosecution in which the same evidence is offered, the federal court may “make an independent determination” as to the admissibility of the evidence.

W. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 11.2(g) (4th ed. 2004). We therefore reject Proell’s argument North Dakota cannot proceed until, or contrary to, the federal court’s ultimate decision on his federal charges. From this conclusion it follows that North Dakota need not and will not stay its proceedings until Proell’s federal appeal is fully adjudicated.

II

[¶ 7] Proell next asserts the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress, arguing insufficient information supported probable cause for issuance of the original search warrants. In early April of 2005, the son of Proell’s longtime girlfriend was implicated in a poaching investigation. On April 6, 2005, law enforcement officers obtained a warrant from a district court judge to search both the girlfriend’s property and Proell’s property, which are situated on adjacent lots in Garrison, and to which the girlfriend’s son had access. Officers found deer antlers, eagle talons and a rifle in the girlfriend’s residence located at 78 3rd Avenue SW. Meanwhile at the Proell address, 79 4th Avenue SW, officers also found marijuana, a Beretta pistol identified in the indictment, and $2,000 cash. After this discovery, the search was stopped and an additional search warrant was sought. The second search warrant was issued by the same district court judge, also on April 6, 2005. The State did not pursue charges stemming from these two searches. Federal grand jury proceedings against Proell began after the searches and resulted in an indictment and the September 2005 federal arrest war *594 rant. Proell was arrested under this federal arrest warrant and did not challenge the search conducted incident to his arrest. Peace officers are authorized to make arrests under a warrant. N.D.C.C. § 29-06-02; N.D.R.Crim.P. 4. Officers “executing a warrant or other process in good faith and under color of law shall be deemed to be acting lawfully.” N.D.C.C. § 12.1-08-02(2).

[¶ 8] “ ‘The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I, § 8 of the North Dakota Constitution protect individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.’ ” State v. Gregg, 2000 ND 154, ¶ 22, 615 N.W.2d 515 (quotation omitted). The United States Supreme Court has defined a Fourth Amendment search as an intrusion into a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy. Id.; see Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967). “When an individual reasonably expects privacy in an area, the government ... must obtain a search warrant unless the intrusion falls within a recognized exception to the warrant requirement.” Gregg, at ¶ 23. One exception to the warrant requirement is when a search is conducted incident to a valid arrest. Cf. New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 460, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981) (when a police officer has made a lawful arrest of the occupant of an automobile, the officer may, “as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile” without a warrant).

[¶ 9] The officers here were executing an arrest warrant.

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Bluebook (online)
2007 ND 17, 726 N.W.2d 591, 2007 N.D. LEXIS 11, 2007 WL 273704, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-proell-nd-2007.