State v. Soto-Navarro

482 P.3d 150, 309 Or. App. 218
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 10, 2021
DocketA166495
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 482 P.3d 150 (State v. Soto-Navarro) 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. Soto-Navarro, 482 P.3d 150, 309 Or. App. 218 (Or. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

Submitted on remand from the Oregon Supreme Court February 6, resubmitted en banc September 21, 2020; reversed and remanded February 10, 2021

STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. TERESA SOTO-NAVARRO, Defendant-Appellant. Washington County Circuit Court 17CR39495, 16CR82211; A166495 (Control), A166496 482 P3d 150

Defendant, a passenger in a car stopped by police for traffic violations, was ordered by an officer to keep her hands where he could see them. Soon thereafter, a drug sniffing dog circled the car and detected drugs in defendant’s possession. Defendant moved to suppress the evidence of the drugs. She contended that she had been seized before the dog’s deployment and that the dog’s sniff unlawfully extended the seizure in violation of the state and federal constitutions. The Oregon Court of Appeals initially affirmed without opinion, and defendant peti- tioned for review in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court remanded in light of its decision in State v. Arreola-Botello, 365 Or 695, 451 P3d 939 (2019), which dis- placed the “unavoidable lull” doctrine. State v. Soto-Navarro, 366 Or 64, 455 P3d 37 (2019). Defendant renews her arguments on remand. The Court of Appeals took the matter en banc to determine whether an officer’s directive to restrict hand movements constitutes a seizure under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution and, if so, whether that seizure had been unlawfully extended by the dog sniff under Arreola-Botello. Held: The trial court erred in denying defen- dant’s motion to suppress. Defendant was seized by the officer’s directive to keep her hands where he could see them, if not earlier. In light of the subject-matter limitations recognized in Arreola-Botello, and because the only plausible justifi- cation for defendant’s seizure was the lawful processing of the traffic stop of the driver, the dog’s sniff unlawfully extended the seizure of defendant. Reversed and remanded.

En Banc On remand from the Oregon Supreme Court, State v. Soto-Navarro, 366 Or 64, 455 P3d 37 (2019). Janelle F. Wipper, Judge. Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, and John P. Evans, Deputy Public Defender, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the briefs for appellant. Cite as 309 Or App 218 (2021) 219

Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General, and David B. Thompson, Assistant Attorney General, filed the briefs for respondent. Before Egan, Chief Judge, and Armstrong, Ortega, DeVore, Lagesen, Tookey, DeHoog, Shorr, James, Aoyagi, Powers, Mooney, and Kamins, Judges. LAGESEN, J. Reversed and remanded. DeVore, J., dissenting. 220 State v. Soto-Navarro

LAGESEN, J. “[J]ust keep your hands where I can see them,” Officer Leininger ordered defendant as he stood next to her car door armed and in uniform, his patrol car with its lights flashing not far behind, his partner, Deputy Gravel, at the driver’s door of the Volkswagen Jetta in which defendant had been riding on the passenger side. She complied. Was defendant seized for purposes of Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution? We took this matter into full court to consider that question, a question we answer yes. That answer, combined with the Supreme Court’s recent rejection of our longstand- ing Article I, section 9, “unavoidable lull” doctrine, in State v. Arreola-Botello, 365 Or 695, 451 P3d 939 (2019), means that the evidence supporting the conviction that defendant challenges on appeal should have been suppressed. Because the trial court, correctly applying the unavoidable lull doc- trine later displaced by Arreola-Botello, concluded other- wise, we reverse and remand. In a stop so pretextual the pretext got lost, Gravel and Leininger pulled over the Jetta in which defendant was a passenger. Gravel and Leininger were on a “street crimes mission” that night, “looking for narcotics and guns, and that kind of thing in the Cornelius area.” As “part of the mission,” they “had a dog attached to us to come to our traf- fic stops.” They stopped the Jetta because they had been informed by one source that the car had a narcotics connec- tion,1 and they had been informed by a different source—a narcotics officer for the City of Beaverton—that he observed the Jetta execute two traffic violations: a rolling stop fol- lowed by a too-wide turn. Although, according to Leininger, “it was a traffic stop,” pulling the car over was part of their mission that night to find narcotics.

1 In a later hearing addressing alleged Brady violations, Gravel testified that another deputy had told him that Hanted, the driver of the Jetta, was on his way to complete a drug deal with a confidential informant at a McDonald’s. In response to defendant’s motion to suppress, however, the state did not justify the stop based on the information it had about the drug deal about to go down. Cite as 309 Or App 218 (2021) 221

After locating and then stopping the Jetta, Gravel and Leininger, who were armed and in uniform, left the patrol car with its overhead lights on and flashing. They approached and flanked the Jetta, with Gravel taking the driver side and Leininger taking the passenger side. Because he had been concerned by defendant’s movements as he approached the car, Leininger directed her to “keep your hands where I can see them.” She complied. Gravel and Leininger spoke with the driver and defendant, obtain- ing their names, but Tux,2 the dog attached to their street- crimes mission, and his handler, Deputy DiPietro, arrived within 30 seconds of the start of the stop, soon circled the car, and detected drugs. No one gave any further thought to the California stop and too-wide turn reported by the Beaverton narcotics officer, and no one filled out a traffic citation. Instead, as was the point of that night’s “street crimes mission” all along, Tux’s detective work gave rise to probable cause to conduct a drug investigation. The investi- gation revealed that defendant had in her possession 70.28 grams of methamphetamine, multiple methamphetamine pipes, $3,231 in cash, a large quantity of empty plastic bag- gies, a digital scale, and eight cell phones. That discovery led to defendant’s arrest and the indictment for one count of unlawful delivery of methamphetamine (charged as a commercial drug offense), ORS 475.890(2), and one count of unlawful possession of methamphetamine, ORS 475.894. Defendant moved to suppress the evidence of the drugs, cash, phones, and paraphernalia. Among other things, defendant contended that she had been seized under both Article I, section 9, and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, before Tux’s deployment, and that Tux’s deployment then unlawfully extended the sei- zure in violation of each constitution. Relying on State v. Clemons, 267 Or App 695, 341 P3d 810 (2014), and Rodriguez v. United States, 575 US 348, 135 S Ct 1609, 191 L Ed 2d 492 (2015), defendant argued that, for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, she was automatically seized when officers

2 The correct spelling of Tux’s name is not clear from the record. The state spelled it “Tux” in its response to defendant’s motion to suppress, but the tran- script spells it “Tucks.” We employ the version contained in the state’s written briefing to the trial court. 222 State v. Soto-Navarro

stopped the car in which she was riding and that Tux’s sniff unconstitutionally prolonged that seizure under Rodriguez.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Acosta Parra
347 Or. App. 216 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2026)
State v. Curry
336 Or. App. 72 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
State v. Vannoy
Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023
State v. Soprych
527 P.3d 808 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023)
State v. Anderson
505 P.3d 472 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
State v. Allen
497 P.3d 777 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. McIntyre
489 P.3d 593 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Shevyakov
489 P.3d 580 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Escudero
489 P.3d 569 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Peek
485 P.3d 292 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Payne
487 P.3d 413 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)
State v. Arivett
483 P.3d 29 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2021)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
482 P.3d 150, 309 Or. App. 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-soto-navarro-orctapp-2021.