State v. Rye

145 N.W.2d 608
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 16, 1966
Docket52088
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 145 N.W.2d 608 (State v. Rye) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Rye, 145 N.W.2d 608 (iowa 1966).

Opinion

145 N.W.2d 608 (1966)

STATE of Iowa, Appellee,
v.
Joanne RYE, Appellant.

No. 52088.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

October 18, 1966.
Rehearing Granted as to Div. IV, December 16, 1966.

*610 Gill & Huscher, Des Moines, for appellant.

Lawrence F. Scalise, Atty. Gen., Don E. Bennett, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raymond A. Fenton, County Atty. and Claude Freeman, Des Moines, Asst. County Atty., for appellee.

BECKER, Justice.

Defendant was convicted of larceny of property having a value in excess of $20 and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in the women's reformatory. She appeals the jury verdict and judgment on several grounds.

Two plain clothes detectives of the Des Moines police force were on duty in an unmarked police car Friday morning, August 6, 1965. They received a report from the police radio dispatcher that a black suit had been taken from Herman Kucharos Men's Store. The suspects were reported as two women, one wearing a blonde wig, who were reported to have gotten into a car driven by an unidentified third person. The license number was given to the officers. They knew the type of car they were to look for, the owner of the car and his address all from previous experience with the owner.

The officers found the car about 15 minutes later. They followed it to the owner's home where it pulled to the curb, coming almost to a complete stop. The car was being driven by a man and had two women passengers. As the unmarked police car pulled up, the car sped away at a high rate of speed. The officers followed. The car then stopped after being told to pull over. As the car was being followed after speeding away, the two women passengers were observed passing garments between them in what the officers described as an abnormal way. The garments were not in shopping bags or other containers.

When the car was stopped the officers approached it. The driver, Richard Evans, was asked why he was trying to get away. He shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know. The officers could see into the car. Defendant was sitting in the rear on the passenger's side. She had a black purse in her lap that bulged, part of a garment was sticking out of the purse. The other lady also had a handbag with garments sticking out of it. A blonde wig was in defendant's lap. The officers also saw a suede coat with a mink collar on it which was between the two women and in defendant's hand. They also saw a white pillow case on the floor of the back seat between defendant's feet. No man's suit was seen at this time nor was any such suit ever found.

The occupants of the car were told to get out, that they were going to the police station for shoplifting. Other articles were found in the car coincidental to this arrest.

I. Defendant predicates several errors on the assertion that the arrest was illegal. This contention should be first examined. Defendant's position is that the arrest here was made and was actually complete when the car was ordered by the officers to stop and actually did stop in compliance with that order. The State does not concede this proposition but states that the point makes no difference as the officers had *611 sufficient information for a legal arrest both when they ordered the car to stop, and when they ordered the people out of the car.

We are not prepared to hold that every order to stop by a policeman to the driver of a moving vehicle, is, when obeyed, an arrest of all of the occupants of that vehicle. This problem has been examined in detail in several United States Supreme Court cases. A close look at the facts and the holdings indicate that the moment when arrest is made depends upon the facts of each case. The mere stopping of the car has been held to be an arrest only in Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134 where the government conceded that the act of waiving defendant's car to a stop constituted an arrest. The dissent notes that the government conceded too much. In any event the decision cannot be taken as a holding that every stopping of a motor vehicle is an arrest.

Rios v. United States, 364 U.S. 253, 80 S.Ct. 1431, 4 L.Ed.2d 1688 involved an arrest of a passenger in a taxicab. The cab was stopped for a traffic light when the officers who had been following approached, one from each side of the cab. They saw defendant drop something to the floor of the car and saw that it was a white powder. The United States Supreme Court sent that case back for a determination by the District Court as to exactly when the arrest was made; i. e., when the officers were approaching the cab, or as the defendant was getting out. The actions of defendant, observed by the officers, were sufficient to support a finding of probable cause for the arrest if the arrest occurred after defendant alighted from the car. On remand the District Court (192 F.Supp. 888) held that the arrest did not occur until after the defendant got out of the cab.

Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 and Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 both involved illegal transportation of liquor; the first during the prohibition era, the second after repeal. Each evoked vigorous dissent. Each recognized that officers do not have an absolute right to stop automobiles for investigation on mere whim or mere suspicion. Each case, under the circumstances reviewed, found that the officers had probable cause to stop the vehicle and that the arrest occurred after other suspicious circumstances added additional reason for probable cause for the subsequent arrest.

Defendant relies heavily on Hobbs v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 182 Iowa 316, 165 N.W. 912. That was a civil case for false arrest. There this court did hold that "There need not be an application of actual force, or such physical restraint as is visible to the naked eye." Submission by the arrestee to the custody of the person making the arrest is sufficient as to the latter element. It does not follow in all cases that an order by a police officer to "Stop" followed by compliance constitutes an arrest without more. We note that Hobbs did not determine the precise moment of arrest but merely stated that the arrest occurred "either upon the depot platform or in the depot * * *."

Under the circumstances shown here we hold that the actions of the officers in stopping the car in which defendant was riding were taken on probable cause, and the subsequent formal arrest after seeing the clothing in the automobile met the statutory requirement of Code, 1966, section 755.4(3); i. e., that the officers have reasonable ground to believe that an indictable public offense was committed and that the person to be arrested had committed it.

The fact that the initial cause for stopping defendant was the report of theft of a man's suit and that such a suit was never found, much less connected to defendant, does not vitiate the proceedings. In State v. Freeland, 255 Iowa 1334, 125 N.W.2d 825 the initial stopping was because the license plate was painted over *612 and there were recent breakins in the vicinity; in Henry v. United States, supra, the fact that officers were looking for stolen whiskey but found stolen radios was not determinative.

II.

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Related

State v. Brown
155 N.W.2d 416 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1968)
State v. Sanders
149 N.W.2d 159 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1967)
State v. Rye
148 N.W.2d 632 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1967)
State v. Dwinells
146 N.W.2d 231 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1966)

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145 N.W.2d 608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rye-iowa-1966.