State v. Scruggs

362 P.3d 265, 274 Or. App. 575, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1294
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedNovember 4, 2015
Docket111134651; A151176
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 362 P.3d 265 (State v. Scruggs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Scruggs, 362 P.3d 265, 274 Or. App. 575, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1294 (Or. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

ORTEGA, P. J.

Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for unlawful delivery of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school, ORS 475.882, unlawful delivery of cocaine, ORS 475.880, and unlawful possession of cocaine, ORS 475.884. He assigns error to the trial court’s (1) denial of his motion to suppress evidence under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and (2) failure to merge his convictions for unlawful delivery of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school and unlawful delivery of cocaine. Defendant argues that the warrantless search to which he was subjected — in which officers ordered him to strip naked, handcuffed him, and forcibly bent him over and spread his buttocks to discover drugs — was unlawful. The trial court ruled that the search was not allowable as a search incident to arrest because it was not reasonable in time, scope, or intensity, but nevertheless determined that the fruits of the search would inevitably have been discovered at the county jail by means of an administrative detainer to which defendant was subject for a parole violation. The state concedes that, as to the inevitable discovery exception to the warrant requirement, it did not meet its burden of showing “certain proper and predictable investigatory procedures” would have been utilized and, thus, the evidence cannot be suppressed on that basis. By cross-assignment, the state challenges the ruling that the search was not allowable as a search incident to arrest. Because we agree with the state and accept its concession as to inevitable discovery and conclude that the warrantless search was not allowable as a search incident to arrest, we reverse and remand.1

We review the trial court’s denial of a motion to suppress for legal error, and “are bound by the trial court’s findings of historical fact that are supported by evidence in the record.” State v. Holdorf, 355 Or 812, 814, 333 P3d 982 (2014). Moreover, “if the trial court did not make findings on all pertinent historical facts and there is evidence from which those facts could be decided more than one way, we [578]*578will presume that the trial court found facts in a manner consistent with its ultimate conclusion.” State v. Stevens, 311 Or 119, 126-27, 806 P2d 92 (1991) (citing Ball v. Gladden, 250 Or 485, 487, 443 P2d 621 (1968)). “Our function is to decide whether the trial court applied legal principles correctly to those facts.” Id. at 126 (citing State v. Peller, 287 Or 255, 260, 598 P2d 684 (1979)).

At around 5:00 a.m., in the Old Town area of Portland, Officers Sparks and Wells were on a “spotting mission”; from an unmarked car, they surveilled the area for possible drug transactions. Police officers and drug users knew the area as “Crack Alley,” where drug deals and use frequently occurred. Sparks saw (through binoculars) defendant make contact with a small group of known drug users who were standing on a corner. He observed defendant talk to one of them, then reach down inside the front of his pants, dig around, pull out his hand, open the palm, inspect what he had retrieved, receive a paper-like object (which Sparks believed to be money) from the person, and hand the person a small object — all actions that Sparks interpreted to be a hand-to-hand drug transaction. After Sparks observed what appeared to be another hand-to-hand drug transaction between defendant and another person, he called in other officers to make contact with defendant and, as the officers drove to the scene, defendant ran. Within a few minutes, Officer Ajir apprehended and arrested defendant and then searched his pockets; he found cash but no drugs. Before the contact and arrest, defendant had briefly left Sparks’s sight, but when defendant returned to his view, Sparks observed nothing to indicate that defendant had tossed or swallowed anything.

Nevertheless, the officers believed that defendant still had drugs concealed on his person, and, in accordance with police department policy that prohibits conducting strip searches on the street, Ajir transported defendant to the local precinct station to conduct what he described as a “more intrusive search.” The officers believed that was necessary because, in their experience, it is common for drug dealers in Old Town to hide drugs inside their anal cavities — a practice known as “keistering” — or pressed between their buttock cheeks. At the station, officers placed [579]*579defendant in a private room. Wells instructed defendant to remove his outer clothing and then went through each item of clothing to check for hidden pockets or tears where defendant could have hidden drugs. Wells then instructed defendant to remove his underwear and ordered him to bend over, to use his own hands to spread apart his buttock cheeks, and to cough so that Wells could see if there were drugs inside defendant’s anus. Defendant bent over, but only at a 45-degree angle, grabbed his buttock cheeks and “halfheartedly” spread them (but not to the point that Wells could observe anything), coughed, and then quickly stood back up. Those actions led Wells to believe that defendant was concealing something deeper inside his buttocks.

Wells proceeded to handcuff defendant and, with the help of Sparks and another officer, physically bent defendant over. Wells saw that defendant was clenching his buttocks together, and Wells proceeded to physically and forcibly spread them open. The officers then spotted a plastic baggie pressed against, but not inside, defendant’s anus. Since “[n]o portion of the bag was technically inside of’ defendant, Wells “pulled out” the bag, which contained cocaine. Wells testified that it was the police department’s policy that, if the bag had been “in any way, shape, or form internalized, for lack of a better term, then at that point in time we’re going to stop and then go the route of a warrant. * * * Because obviously that’s about as intrusive a search as you’re going to get.” Defendant was then allowed to put his clothes back on. The police delivered defendant to the county jail to be booked on charges of delivery and possession of controlled substances, and on a no-bail probation violation detainer.

The explanation for the detainer is that the officers learned that defendant was on probation and contacted his probation officer. Wells testified that, if the officers had not discovered the drugs, they would nevertheless have called defendant’s probation officer to alert him of the hand-to-hand drug transactions they had observed defendant making in Old Town. The police did, in fact, make such a call and spoke with Desmond, the probation office’s supervisor. Defendant had recently been released from jail and had failed to report to his probation officer; consequently, Desmond issued an [580]*580administrative detainer for defendant, which was a no-bail hold on his release. Desmond testified that, if the officers had reported to her that they had not discovered drugs on defendant but had observed a hand-to-hand transaction in Old Town at 5:00 a.m., she would nevertheless have asked the jail to hold defendant without bail on an administrative detainer.

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Related

State v. Chambers
404 P.3d 1122 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
362 P.3d 265, 274 Or. App. 575, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-scruggs-orctapp-2015.