State v. Musser ( 2014 )


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  • 148	                        August 28, 2014	                         No. 60
    IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE
    STATE OF OREGON
    STATE OF OREGON,
    Petitioner on Review,
    v.
    DEBORAH ANN MUSSER,
    Respondent on Review.
    (CC 201001347; CA A145540; SC S060868)
    En banc.
    On review from the Court of Appeals.*
    Argued and submitted September 17, 2013.
    Rolf Moan, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued
    the cause for petitioner on review. With him on the briefs
    were Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Anna M.
    Joyce, Solicitor General.
    Peter Gartlan, Chief Defender, Salem, argued the cause
    and filed the brief for respondent on review.
    BALMER, C. J.
    The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. The
    judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the case is
    remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.
    Walters, J., specially concurred and filed an opinion, in
    which Baldwin, J., joined.
    Brewer, J., specially concurred and filed an opinion.
    Baldwin, J., specially concurred and filed an opinion.
    ______________
    *  Appeal from Lane County Circuit Court, Debra K. Vogt, Judge. 
    253 Or App 178
    , 289 P3d 340 (2012).
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	149
    Defendant moved to suppress evidence obtained pursuant to a voluntary con-
    sent search, arguing that her consent had been derived from a prior unlawful
    stop. The trial court denied the motion and found defendant guilty at a stipulated
    facts trial. The Court of Appeals reversed. Held: (1) The court adhered to its hold-
    ing in State v. Unger, 
    356 Or 59
    , __ P3d __ (2014) (decided this date), modifying
    part of the exploitation analysis first described in State v. Hall, 
    339 Or 7
    , 115
    P3d 908 (2005); and (2) applying that modified analysis, the police improperly
    exploited their unlawful stop of defendant to obtain her consent to the search.
    The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. The judgment of the cir-
    cuit court is reversed, and the case is remanded to the circuit court for further
    proceedings.
    150	                                         State v. Musser
    BALMER, C. J.
    This is one of three cases that we decide today in
    which we examine when evidence obtained pursuant to a
    voluntary consent search must be suppressed on the the-
    ory that the consent was the result of exploitation of prior
    illegal police conduct. In the first of the three cases, State
    v. Unger, 
    356 Or 59
    , ___ P3d ___ (2014), we modified part
    of the exploitation analysis announced in State v. Hall, 
    339 Or 7
    , 115 P3d 908 (2005). We disavowed the requirement
    in Hall that a defendant must establish a “minimal fac-
    tual nexus” between the unlawful police conduct and the
    disputed evidence, and we instead held that, when a defen-
    dant challenges the validity of his or her consent based on a
    prior police illegality, the state bears the burden of demon-
    strating that the consent was voluntary and was not the
    product of police exploitation of that illegality. Unger, 356
    Or at 74-75. We also emphasized that the determination of
    whether the police have exploited their unlawful conduct
    to obtain a defendant’s consent depends on the totality of
    the circumstances. That analysis, we stated, should recog-
    nize the importance of the voluntariness of the consent and
    should consider not only the temporal proximity between
    the unlawful conduct and the consent and any intervening
    or mitigating circumstances—factors emphasized in Hall—
    but also the nature of the unlawful conduct, including its
    purpose and flagrancy. Id. at 93.
    In this case, a police officer on patrol encountered
    defendant at 10:00 p.m. in an area behind a shopping cen-
    ter where criminal activity frequently occurred. The offi-
    cer stopped defendant and obtained her consent to search
    pouches that he saw inside her purse, as well as the remain-
    der of her purse. During those searches, the officer found
    drugs and drug paraphernalia. Defendant sought to sup-
    press that evidence at trial, arguing, among other things,
    that the stop had been unlawful and that defendant’s con-
    sent had been derived from the unlawful stop in violation
    of Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution. The trial
    court denied that motion, and defendant was convicted of
    unlawful possession of methamphetamine at a stipulated
    facts trial. The Court of Appeals reversed, concluding that
    the officer had stopped defendant unlawfully and that the
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	151
    incriminating evidence had derived from that stop. State v.
    Musser, 
    253 Or App 178
    , 184, 289 P3d 340 (2012). For the
    reasons discussed below, we affirm the decision of the Court
    of Appeals.
    A police officer was patrolling an alley behind a
    shopping center around 10:00 p.m., because he often had
    encountered people engaging in illegal activity in that area.
    At that time of night, the majority of the businesses in the
    shopping center were closed. The businesses that remained
    open were in the front of the complex, but they were near a
    walkway that connected the front of the shopping center to
    the alley that the officer was patrolling. As he drove through
    the alley, the officer saw defendant and a male compan-
    ion on the walkway. Because the alley was a place “where
    people frequently engage[d] in criminal activity,” the offi-
    cer approached defendant and her companion “basically, to
    make sure they were not doing anything wrong.”1 The officer
    also believed that they were trespassing because of the time
    of night.
    As the officer approached in his car, which had
    its spotlight and alley lights on, defendant started to walk
    towards the front of the shopping center. The officer got out
    of his car and said “Hey, I need to talk to you.” Instead of
    talking to the officer, however, defendant continued walk-
    ing toward the front of the shopping center, prompting the
    officer to say “in a more direct, firm tone,” “Hey, come back
    here. I need to talk to you.” Defendant came back to speak
    to the officer, but told him that she wanted to return to the
    front of the shopping center where her friends were.
    The officer requested defendant’s identification. Defen-
    dant was “nervous” and “fidgety.” Based on defendant’s
    “inability to stand still” and her “nervousness as compared
    to the male, who was completely calm,” the officer suspected
    that defendant had recently used methamphetamine or
    some other stimulant.
    While defendant was looking through her purse for
    identification, the officer noticed two Crown Royal pouches
    in her purse. Based on his suspicion that she had recently
    1
    The quotations in the factual summary are from testimony below.
    152	                                                         State v. Musser
    used methamphetamine, the officer “thought it was more
    likely than not that she probably had some controlled
    substances in her purse.” After the officer ran the name
    on defendant’s identification, he “asked for her consent to
    search the two Crown Royal pouches that were in her purse,
    and she agreed.” Inside one of the pouches, the officer dis-
    covered a metal spoon with burn marks on it, a small metal
    scraping tool, and a small black pouch with white residue
    inside. The officer believed that the spoon and the scraping
    tool had been used in connection with methamphetamine,
    and he therefore suspected that the white residue was
    methamphetamine.
    After the officer searched the Crown Royal pouches,
    a second officer arrived to assist with the investigation. The
    first officer then asked for defendant’s consent to search the
    remaining contents of her purse, and defendant agreed.
    During that search, the officer discovered a third pouch con-
    taining a bag with a white crystalline substance inside that
    later tested positive for methamphetamine. The whole inter-
    action, from when the officer initially contacted defendant to
    when he wrote her a citation, lasted about an hour.
    The state charged defendant with unlawful posses-
    sion of methamphetamine, and defendant moved to suppress
    her statements and the items found in her purse. Defendant
    argued, among other things, that the officer had stopped her
    unlawfully and that, to the extent that she had consented,
    her consent had been “derived from” the unlawful stop.2 The
    trial court denied defendant’s motion to suppress, reasoning
    that the officer had “reasonably suspected that some crim-
    inal activity was afoot” when he had stopped defendant.
    The case proceeded to a stipulated facts trial, and the court
    found defendant guilty.
    On appeal, the parties focused their arguments on
    whether the officer had had reasonable suspicion to stop
    2
    In her memorandum in support of the motion to suppress, defendant also
    argued that her consent was “not knowing or voluntary.” The trial court did not
    address that issue, and defendant did not raise it on appeal or in her brief before
    this court, instead focusing on the exploitation prong of the analysis. At oral
    argument, defense counsel “acknowledge[d] that the consent [had been] volun-
    tary,” so we do not address that issue.
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	153
    defendant, and the Court of Appeals likewise focused its
    opinion on that issue. See Musser, 253 Or App at 181 (stating
    that the “issue on appeal is whether [the officer] had rea-
    sonable suspicion to stop defendant for criminal trespass”).
    The court addressed defendant’s exploitation argument in
    a single sentence: “Because [the officer] stopped defendant
    without reasonable suspicion and there is no dispute that
    the evidence he subsequently obtained derived from that
    stop, the trial court erred by denying defendant’s motion to
    suppress.”3 Id. at 184.
    The state sought review. On review, the state con-
    cedes that the officer stopped defendant without reason-
    able suspicion, in violation of Article I, section 9. The state
    argues that, despite that illegality, the evidence discovered
    in defendant’s purse should not be suppressed. As in Unger,
    the state argues that, if a police illegality is followed by a
    voluntary consent to search, then any evidence obtained as
    a result of that search is admissible. The state acknowledges
    that that result would require this court to overrule Hall.
    Alternatively, the state argues that this court should mod-
    ify Hall as it did in State v. Hemenway, 
    353 Or 129
    , 295
    P3d 617, vac’d as moot, 
    353 Or 498
    , 302 P3d 413 (2013), by
    emphasizing that the exploitation analysis set forth in Hall
    overvalued the temporal proximity between the illegality
    and the consent, while undervaluing the defendant’s volun-
    tary consent.
    Under either test, the state argues, the evidence in
    this case should not be suppressed. Under its proposed rule,
    the state argues, defendant’s consent to both searches was
    voluntary, and that fact—in and of itself—provides a basis
    for denying a motion to suppress. Even if this court rejects
    that approach, the state argues that, under its alternative
    3
    The state had conceded that, under the Court of Appeals’ prior applications
    of Hall, the evidence was the product of the stop. The state noted, however, that
    in its view, Hall did not set forth the proper test for when a prior police illegality
    requires suppression of evidence obtained pursuant to a consent search. Instead,
    the state argued, as it does here, that the only relevant inquiry was whether the
    consent was voluntary. Nonetheless, the state acknowledged that only this court
    could modify or overrule Hall, and the state noted that this court likely would
    address the issue in State v. Hemenway, 
    353 Or 129
    , 295 P3d 617, vac’d as moot,
    
    353 Or 498
    , 302 P3d 413 (2013), which was pending before this court at that time.
    154	                                         State v. Musser
    proposed rule, nothing about the interaction “significantly
    affected” defendant’s decision to consent because the inter-
    action was short, the officer did not physically restrain
    defendant, and the officer was not otherwise aggressive or
    intimidating.
    Although defendant agrees that this court should
    disavow the minimal factual nexus test from Hall, as the
    court did in Hemenway, defendant argues that this court
    should retain the remaining exploitation analysis set forth
    in Hall, rather than modifying it as we did in Hemenway.
    Defendant argues, however, that the evidence must be
    suppressed under the analysis articulated in either Hall
    or Hemenway because the officer requested consent to
    search shortly after the unlawful stop, there were no inter-
    vening or mitigating circumstances, and the interaction
    never deescalated from a criminal investigation into mere
    conversation.
    In Unger, today we held that the determination as
    to whether evidence found in a search should be suppressed
    because police exploited their violation of a defendant’s
    Article I, section 9, rights to obtain consent to the search
    requires consideration of the totality of the circumstances
    surrounding the police-defendant encounter. In reaching
    that conclusion, we rejected both the state’s view that vol-
    untary consent generally cures any taint that might have
    arisen from prior police misconduct and the defendant’s view
    that voluntary consent that follows unlawful police conduct
    generally is the product of exploitation and must lead to sup-
    pression, in the absence of mitigating or intervening circum-
    stances, such as Miranda warnings or an admonition that
    consent need not be granted. As part of the totality of the
    circumstances, we described the considerations relevant to
    determining whether the police improperly “took advantage
    of” or “exploited” their unlawful conduct to gain the defen-
    dant’s consent to search. We noted that voluntary consent
    was an important, but not dispositive consideration, and we
    examined the nature of the unlawful conduct, including its
    purpose and flagrancy, the temporal proximity between the
    unlawful conduct and consent, and the presence of inter-
    vening or mitigating circumstances. We also recognized,
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	155
    as we had in Hall, that evidence should not be excluded on
    exploitation grounds if it inevitably would have been discov-
    ered or if the police discovered the evidence though a source
    independent of the illegality. See Unger, 356 Or at 64.
    We applied those considerations in Unger and con-
    cluded that the evidence in that case did not have to be
    suppressed. There, four detectives went to the defendant’s
    house in response to a complaint about drug activity and
    information from an informant that there were children at
    the house with access to drugs and guns. When knocking
    on two front doors failed to elicit any response, detectives
    trespassed onto the defendant’s property by following a path
    around to the back of the house, where they knocked on a
    sliding glass door. Defendant came to the door and, after
    the detectives explained why they were there, the defendant
    consented to the detectives entering the home, then agreed
    to show them around the house. While walking through the
    house, one detective discovered a bag with methamphet-
    amine residue. There, we concluded that the misconduct
    was limited in extent, nature, and severity because the offi-
    cers had followed a path around the house without cross-
    ing any barriers and the detectives had interacted with the
    defendant just as they would have at the front door. Id. at
    89-90. Moreover, the detectives’ purpose in going to the back
    door was to contact the defendant, not to make the defen-
    dant more likely to consent. Id. at 91. Although the consent
    had been given in close temporal proximity to the illegality,
    and there were no intervening or mitigating circumstances,
    under the totality of the circumstances, the state met its
    burden of showing that the detectives’ minimal intrusion
    did not require suppression. Id. at 92.
    Similarly, in State v. Lorenzo, 
    356 Or 134
    , ___ P3d
    ___ (2014), which we also decided today, we affirmed the
    trial court’s denial of a motion to suppress evidence obtained
    pursuant to a voluntary consent search that followed an offi-
    cer opening the defendant’s apartment door and reaching
    into the apartment to knock on his bedroom door. There,
    because the officer was concerned for the defendant’s safety,
    the officer had made repeated attempts to contact the defen-
    dant before reaching inside the apartment to knock on the
    156	                                          State v. Musser
    bedroom door. After knocking on the defendant’s bedroom
    door, the officer waited outside the apartment until the defen-
    dant came to the door and consented to allowing the officer
    to enter the apartment. When he entered the apartment, the
    officer smelled marijuana, and the defendant then consented
    to a search of his bedroom. Applying the Unger analysis, we
    noted that there was temporal proximity between the ille-
    gality and the consent, but that other considerations cut in
    the opposite direction. Id. at 143. In particular, we reasoned
    that the search was limited in extent and severity and was
    not an effort to direct or control the defendant. Id. at 144.
    Moreover, although there were no intervening or mitigating
    circumstances, the purpose of the search was to check on
    the defendant’s welfare and not to conduct an investigation.
    Id. at 144, 145. As to flagrancy, we acknowledged that entry
    into the defendant’s apartment was unlawful, but explained
    that the officer’s conduct was restrained, without threats
    or intimidation. Id. at 145-46. Based on all those consider-
    ations, we concluded that the state had met its burden of
    showing that the police did not exploit their unlawful con-
    duct to obtain the consent.
    We now apply the principles set out in Unger to
    the facts here. A police officer saw defendant on a walkway
    behind a shopping center at a time when most of the busi-
    nesses were closed. The area was one where the officer knew
    that illegal conduct took place. The officer directed defen-
    dant to come speak to him, saying, “Hey, I need to talk to
    you.” When defendant continued walking, the officer stated,
    in a “more direct, firm tone,” “Hey, come back here. I need to
    talk to you.” Defendant complied. As the state concedes, the
    officer lacked reasonable suspicion that defendant had com-
    mitted a crime, and the officer’s conduct was an unconsti-
    tutional stop of defendant. The stop continued for about an
    hour until defendant was cited and released. In our view, the
    stop here was a more severe violation of defendant’s rights
    than the violation in Unger, which was a daytime trespass
    onto the defendant’s property that allowed the police to con-
    tact the defendant at his back door, or the similar conduct
    in Lorenzo, where the officer reached into the defendant’s
    apartment to knock on the defendant’s bedroom door in an
    effort to contact him because of concern for his safety. Here,
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	157
    the police order to defendant to return and talk to the police,
    rather than to continue in the direction she was heading,
    clearly indicated to defendant that she had no choice but to
    respond to the order, bringing her significantly under the
    control of the police.
    Defendant also is correct—and the state does not
    dispute—that the request to defendant to consent to the
    search of her purse occurred during the unlawful stop,
    thus establishing the “temporal proximity” that our cases,
    including Unger and Hall, have indicated is a relevant con-
    sideration in the exploitation analysis. The state does not
    argue that the evidence found in defendant’s purse would
    have “inevitably” been discovered or that it would have been
    (or was) discovered by a means independent of defendant’s
    consent.
    Neither does the state argue that intervening or
    mitigating circumstances—other than defendant’s volun-
    tary consent to the search—occurred between the unlawful
    stop and the discovery of the evidence. Rather, the state’s
    central argument is that defendant’s consent to the request
    to search the pouches and her purse, because it was vol-
    untary, was sufficient to vindicate defendant’s rights. Put
    differently, the state argues that, because a voluntary-
    consent search is “reasonable,” defendant’s right to be free
    from “unreasonable” searches was not violated. In Unger,
    we accepted the state’s argument that this court in Hall
    had failed to give sufficient weight to an individual’s volun-
    tary consent to a search. We did not, however, suggest that
    voluntary consent always would “trump” the effect of prior
    police misconduct; rather, we identified a number of nonex-
    clusive considerations that should be considered in review-
    ing the totality of the circumstances to determine whether
    the police “exploited” or “took advantage” of their unlawful
    conduct to obtain the consent. See Unger, 356 Or at 79-80.
    We return to a discussion of those considerations in
    this case. We observed in Hall and reaffirmed in Unger that
    exploitation of police misconduct may exist if the police seek
    the defendant’s consent solely as a result of knowledge of
    inculpatory evidence obtained from their unlawful conduct.
    Hall, 339 Or at 35; Unger, 356 Or at 76. The facts support
    158	                                          State v. Musser
    defendant’s argument that such exploitation occurred here,
    because the officer pursued several lines of inquiry “spurred
    by his observations of the contents of defendant’s purse
    during the unlawful seizure.” After defendant, at the offi-
    cer’s direction, came towards him, he asked for identifica-
    tion. While defendant was looking through her purse for
    identification, the officer saw the two Crown Royal pouches.
    Because of his observation that she was nervous and fidgety,
    and his suspicion that defendant had drugs in the purse,
    when the officer saw the Crown Royal pouches—in which,
    as the trial court observed, drug users often carry their
    drugs—he asked for consent to search them. In contrast to
    the facts in Unger, where the trespass onto defendant’s prop-
    erty only brought the police into contact with the defendant,
    or the similar circumstances in Lorenzo, the unlawful police
    conduct here led directly to observations, including obser-
    vation of the pouches that the officer suspected contained
    drugs, and then to the request for consent to search. Here,
    there was not simply “but for” causation—unlawful police
    conduct and then a request for consent. Instead, the unlaw-
    ful conduct led to the request for identification, which led to
    observation of pouches that the officer believed contained
    drugs, which led to the request to search and the evidence
    ultimately obtained. That evidence was the product of the
    initial unlawful stop.
    In Unger, we also identified the “purpose and fla-
    grancy” of the misconduct as relevant to determining
    exploitation. As we discussed there, the inquiry into “pur-
    pose” is not focused on the officer’s subjective intent, but on
    the objective circumstances, including verbal and nonverbal
    conduct, that may indicate whether police took advantage of
    the prior illegality to obtain defendant’s consent. 356 Or at
    82-83. Here, without—the state concedes—probable cause
    or reasonable suspicion to believe that defendant was com-
    mitting any crime, the officer violated the constitutional
    rights of defendant and her friend for the purpose of “basi-
    cally [making] sure they were not doing anything wrong:
    Breaking the law, damaging any property.”
    Police obviously need reasonable leeway to inves-
    tigate and prevent crimes, and monitoring locations where
    criminal activity frequently occurs and where trespassers
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	159
    are often found is part of good police work. But police are
    not authorized to detain and question citizens merely to
    “make sure they [are] not doing anything wrong.” The pur-
    pose of the unlawful stop here—in contrast to the “knock-
    and-talk” in Unger, which was precipitated by information
    about the presence of drugs, guns, and children in a partic-
    ular house—apparently was a “shot in the dark” to check for
    criminal activity.4 But here, even that generalized concern
    about trespassing and criminal activity gave way as the
    encounter developed, with the officer eventually focusing—
    as defendant well understood—on drug possession. The ini-
    tial and developing purpose of the police misconduct in con-
    tinuing to detain defendant while inquiring about various
    possible crimes shows the state taking advantage of that
    misconduct in a way that likely had an effect on defendant’s
    decision to consent.
    As to the flagrancy of the police conduct, the state
    argues that the seizure was only “minimally restrictive,”
    that defendant was never handcuffed, and that the police
    were not—and were not perceived by defendant to be—
    aggressive or intimidating. All that may be true. But fla-
    grancy is simply one consideration in the larger exploitation
    analysis. We agree with defendant that police may not pur-
    posefully and severely interfere with a person’s Article I,
    section 9, rights—even if they do so politely.
    For the reasons set out above, and applying the
    analysis described in Unger, we conclude that the police
    improperly exploited their unlawful stop of defendant to
    obtain her consent to the search. We agree with the Court
    of Appeals that the resulting evidence should have been
    suppressed.
    The decision of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
    The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the case
    is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.
    4
    The purpose of the unlawful stop here also stands in contrast to Lorenzo,
    where the officer went to the defendant’s apartment to check on him after learn-
    ing that the defendant’s roommate, who had just tried to commit suicide, owned
    a gun. Nothing in the record there indicated that the officer was concerned about
    any criminal activity on the part of the defendant when the officer knocked on the
    defendant’s interior bedroom door.
    160	                                          State v. Musser
    WALTERS, J., specially concurring.
    I concur in the judgment of the court and its rea-
    soning that, because the unlawful stop “led to the request
    for identification, which led to the observation of pouches
    that the officer believed contained drugs, which led to the
    request to search and the evidence ultimately obtained,” the
    “evidence was the product of the initial unlawful stop” and
    must be suppressed. State v. Musser, 
    356 Or 148
    , 158, ___
    P3d ___ (2014). I also agree that the officer took advantage
    of the unlawful stop “in a way that likely had an effect on
    defendant’s decision to consent.” Id. at 159. I write, however,
    with a plea for consistency and simplicity.
    In State v. Unger, 
    356 Or 59
    , ___ P3d ___ (2014),
    the majority specifically declared that it was adhering to
    the following principle articulated in State v. Hall, 
    339 Or 7
    , 115 P3d 908 (2005), and other cases: “A causal
    connection requiring suppression may exist because the
    police sought the defendant’s consent solely as a result of
    knowledge of inculpatory evidence obtained from unlaw-
    ful police conduct.” Unger, 356 Or at 86. The majority
    described the connection between the illegality and the
    consent to search as “a direct causal connection.” Id. The
    majority then went on to discuss “less direct exploitation,”
    which, it said, requires consideration of the totality of
    the circumstances to determine whether the consent was
    sufficiently related to the unlawful police misconduct to
    require suppression. Id.
    To me, this case is a perfect example of the “direct
    causal connection” described and adhered to in Unger, and
    the court apparently does not disagree. Musser, 356 Or at
    157-58. However, the court nevertheless goes on to discuss
    whether the constitutional violation was severe, purposeful,
    or flagrant. When previously describing the exploitation
    that occurs in circumstances of “direct causal connection,”
    the court has not considered the factors applicable in “less
    direct exploitation” cases, and I question whether that com-
    plexity is necessary or desirable. The cause of consistency
    and simplicity would be advanced if the court were to con-
    clude, without adjectival measuring, that, in this case, the
    evidence must be suppressed because the officer violated
    Cite as 
    356 Or 148
     (2014)	161
    the constitution, obtained an advantage that he otherwise
    would not have had, and then exploited that advantage to
    obtain consent to search.
    The cause of consistency also would be advanced if
    the court were to recognize that the same reasoning that
    requires exclusion of the inculpatory evidence in this case
    requires exclusion of the inculpatory evidence at issue in
    Unger. In both cases, the officers approached the defen-
    dants to try to ascertain whether criminal conduct was tak-
    ing place. In this case, the officer violated the constitution
    because he stopped defendant without reasonable suspicion.
    In Unger, the officers violated the constitution because they
    invaded the defendant’s property and privacy without his
    permission. In both cases, the officers gained an advantage
    that they would not have had had they operated within the
    law. In this case, the unconstitutional stop permitted the
    officer to get defendant’s attention, see pouches, and ask for
    consent to search. In Unger, the unconstitutional intrusion
    permitted the officers to get the defendant’s attention and
    ask for consent to search. To be consistent, the court, in both
    cases, should require the suppression of the evidence that
    the officers obtained by pressing their advantage.
    I am heartened that, in this case, the court recog-
    nizes the causal link between the constitutional violation and
    the inculpatory evidence and orders its suppression. I take
    hope from the fact that, in State v. Ayles, 
    348 Or 622
    , 636, 237
    P3d 805 (2010), State v. Rodgers/Kirkeby, 
    347 Or 610
    , 629-30,
    227 P3d 695 (2010), and State v. Hall, 
    339 Or 7
    , 34-35, 115
    P3d 908 (2005), the court recognized the same causal link
    and also ordered suppression, and that, in the trilogy of cases
    decided today, this court did not explicitly overrule those
    cases. My plea is that, in the years to come, courts will con-
    tinue to adhere to the reasoning in this and those cases and,
    in doing so, will make the law more consistent, more easily
    applied, and more true to its constitutional purpose.
    Baldwin, J., joins in this opinion.
    BREWER, J., specially concurring.
    I concur in the judgment of the court but, for the
    reasons stated in my dissenting opinion in State v. Unger,
    162	                                         State v. Musser
    
    356 Or 59
    , 121-22, ___ P3d ___ (2014) (Brewer, J., dissent-
    ing), I am unable to join in the opinion of the court in this
    case.
    BALDWIN, J., specially concurring.
    I concur in the judgment of the court but, for the
    reasons I explained in my dissenting opinion in State v.
    Unger, 
    356 Or 59
    , 133, ___ P3d ___ (2014) (Baldwin, J., dis-
    senting), I do not join the majority’s reasoning in this case.
    

Document Info

Docket Number: S060868

Filed Date: 8/28/2014

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 10/30/2014