State v. Windes

776 P.2d 477, 13 Kan. App. 2d 577, 1989 Kan. App. LEXIS 476
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedJune 23, 1989
DocketNo. 63,092
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 776 P.2d 477 (State v. Windes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Windes, 776 P.2d 477, 13 Kan. App. 2d 577, 1989 Kan. App. LEXIS 476 (kanctapp 1989).

Opinion

Briscoe, J.:

This is an interlocutory appeal by the State pursuant to K.S.A. 22-3603 from an order sustaining defendant Gerard Windes’ motion to suppress evidence.

Defendant was charged with possession of cocaine. The parties stipulated to the following facts:

“1. On April 26,1988 Federal Express security manager John Matlock opened a suspicious package which had been placed in the Orlando, Florida Federal Express office for shipment to Overland Park, Kansas. Matlock opened the package as he believed it to be suspicious in that he thought it could possibly contain contraband substances. Matlock used his company’s ‘drug profile’ criterion in determining that the package should be opened for inspection. Matlock, nor any of his staff, are commissioned law enforcement officers. Matlock, nor any of his staff, had any contact with law enforcement officers prior to the package being opened.
“2. After the package was opened, Matlock discovered that it contained a quantity of white powder, which he believed to be cocaine. Matlock then contacted Agent Kerry Farney of the Florida State Attorney’s Metro Bureau Investigation, who at that time became involved in the investigation. The white powder was field tested positive for the presence of cocaine. Agent Farney contacted the Overland Park Police Department and made arrangements to ship the package to Overland Park so that the recipient of the suspect package could be identified.
“3. Lt. Ray Vallejo of the Overland Park Police Department became involved in the investigation and was on hand when the Federal Express package was received at KCI Airport on April 29, 1988. Vallejo received the package from Dan Rush of the local Federal Express office. Vallejo returned with a package to the Overland Park Police station where the package was again opened and examined by the police. The package was then retaped and sent to the Federal Express office in Overland Park. An Overland Park female officer, Amy Auld, posed as a federal express clerk and gave the package to the defendant when he came to pick it up at approximately 8:45 a.m. on April 28,1988. The defendant picked the package up, was allowed to leave the Federal Express station and drove away in his vehicle. A few minutes later the suspect, Gerard Windes, was stopped in his vehicle by Overland Park police officers who seized the package and opened it without benefit of a search warrant. Found inside the package was a quantity of cocaine.”

The court concluded the search of the package after defendant was stopped in Overland Park was unreasonable because it was conducted without a warrant and did not fall under any of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement — consent, [579]*579search incident to arrest, exigent circumstances, “hot pursuit,” or “stop and frisk.” It is apparent from the journal entry that the court focused on the search of the package following its delivery in Kansas, and not on the initial opening of the package in Florida by the Federal Express employee.

On appeal, the State contends the opening of the package after its delivery in Kansas was permissible because the officers knew its contents and were executing a “controlled delivery” to defendant. The State contends the initial opening of the package by Federal Express was a private search, not within the scope of the Fourth Amendment, and the actions of the Florida law enforcement officers were reasonable because they did not expand beyond the prior private search, relying on United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 80 L. Ed. 2d 85, 104 S. Ct. 1652 (1984).

A review of the facts shows the Kansas officers were executing a “controlled delivery” to defendant. In Illinois v. Andreas, 463 U.S. 765, 77 L. Ed. 2d 1003, 103 S. Ct. 3319 (1983), the Supreme Court addressed the search and seizure of a container known to contain contraband and delivered to a suspect in a “controlled delivery.” The Court held that no protected privacy interest remains in contraband in a container once governmental officials have lawfully opened the container and identified its contents as illegal. The simple act of resealing the container does not operate to revive or restore the lawfully invaded privacy rights. As a result, the subsequent reopening of the container is not a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that, absent a substantial likelihood the contents have been changed, there is no legitimate expectation of privacy in the contents of a container previously opened under lawful authority.

Following Andreas, two issues are presented in this case: (1) Was the initial search by Florida law enforcement officers legal; and (2) was there a substantial likelihood the contents of the package were changed after delivery to defendant?

A. Initial search of package.

The State contends the original search by Federal Express employees was a private search outside the scope of the Fourth Amendment and the subsequent actions of the Florida agents were legal under Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109. Defendant contends the Fourth Amendment required the Florida law enforcement

[580]*580officers to obtain a search warrant before conducting a field test of the contents of the package and, from that point on, all evidence obtained against defendant, including the later seizure of the package from his vehicle, should be suppressed. Defendant does not argue that the initial search conducted by a Federal Express employee was illegal.

The Fourth Amendment provides the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” The wording and scope of section 15 of the Bill of Rights of the Kansas Constitution has been held to be identical, for all practical purposes, to the Fourth Amendment. State v. Bishop, 240 Kan. 647, 656, 732 P.2d 765 (1987). The Fourth Amendment proscribes only governmental action; it is wholly inapplicable to a search or seizure by a private individual not acting as an agent of the government or with the participation or knowledge of any governmental official. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. at 113; State v. Miesbauer, 232 Kan. 291, 293, 654 P.2d 934 (1982).

In this case, a Federal Express employee opened the package because, based on his company’s “drug profile” criteria, he was suspicious that it contained contraband. According to the stipulated facts, neither the employee nor any other staff was a commissioned law enforcement officer, nor was there any contact with law enforcement officers prior to the package being opened. Therefore, the actions of the employee, whether reasonable or not, did not violate the Fourth Amendment because of their private character. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. at 115. See State v. Boswell, 219 Kan. 788, 549 P.2d 919 (1976).

At issue, however, is the subsequent action of law enforcement officials.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
776 P.2d 477, 13 Kan. App. 2d 577, 1989 Kan. App. LEXIS 476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-windes-kanctapp-1989.