Summary 2006 WY 152

Summary of Decision issued December 15, 2006

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Case Name: Moulton v. State

Citation: 2006 WY 152

Docket Number: 05-244

Appeal from the District Court of Platte County, the Honorable John C. Brooks, Judge

Representing Appellant (Defendant): Ken Koski, State Public Defender, PDP; Donna D. Domonkos, Appellate Counsel; Diane Courselle, Faculty Director, DAP; Michael Irvin, Student Intern; Kathryn Hogarty, Student Intern. Argument by Ms. Hogarty.

Representing Appellee (Plaintiff): Patrick J. Crank, Attorney General: Paul Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; James Michael Causey, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Mr. Causey.

Issue: Whether the district court erred in denying appellant’s motion to suppress.

Holding: Moulton was charged with one count of manufacturing psilocyn, a felony. Prior to trial he filed a motion to suppress evidence seized from his residence pursuant to a search warrant obtained by deputies after they entered and searched the residence without a warrant. The district court made the following findings of fact relevant to the instant case: there was a call to the Sheriff’s office from Ms. Moulton in her capacity as a medic; there was urgency in the voice of the caller on the tape; the Sheriff’s Office was concerned about Ms. Moulton; deputies proceeded to the Moulton residence, walked around, knocked, announced and entered; the deputies found 2 teenaged girls in one bedroom who speculated their mother was down at the lake; the deputies entered the second bedroom and saw in plain sight evidence of some type of drug operation. The district court reached the following conclusions of law: based on the call, the Sheriff’s Office had reasonable basis on which to believe that Ms. Moulton was either in trouble herself or had encountered trouble; it was reasonable for the Sheriff’s Office to use their best efforts to find her; Ms. Moulton should have expected that once she identified herself as a medic at 4:30 in the morning, that the Sheriff would try to find her; it was reasonable of the Sheriff to believe there was an emergency of some kind that needed to be responded to; the Deputies reasonably went to the Moulton residence to find her; given the likely emergency, it was reasonable for the deputies to enter the residence; during this attempt the drug paraphernalia was discovered; there was no search of closed containers but simply a search for Ms. Moulton. The paraphernalia was in plain sight; the search fell into the emergency assistance exception to obtaining a search warrant
Standard of Review: The question of whether an unreasonable search or seizure occurred in violation of constitutional rights presents a question of law and is reviewed de novo. The Court reverses a district court’s factual findings on a motion to suppress only when they are clearly erroneous.
Discussion: The State argues that officers may enter and search an area to render assistance but not to look for evidence. Because the deputies in this case entered the residence to look for Ms. Moulton and provide assistance in response to her radio transmission and because their search of the residence was limited to looking for her, the State contended the search was proper under the emergency assistance exception. The Court has considered the applicability of the emergency assistance exception to the warrant requirement in two prior cases, Pena and Ortega. In both cases, officers entered private residences without a warrant in response to reported shootings. Like these Wyoming cases, the majority of cases in which other courts have applied the emergency assistance exception to uphold a warrantless search have involved reports of violence where the victims were thought to be seriously injured.
The instant case does not involve a specific clearly described report of an emergency occurring inside the Moulton residence from which the deputies perceived an immediate need to respond in order to protect life or limb. Under the circumstances though, the Sheriff’s Office had no real choice but to respond. Efforts to reach Ms. Moulton by phone were not successful. The only other information they had to make contact with her was her home address. It was reasonable for the deputies to go to the home, to knock and enter when there was no response and to look for Ms. Moulton throughout the home. Once they determined Ms. Moulton was not inside the home, they left.
Allison was cited as supporting Moulton’s argument that the radio transmission was not enough to avoid the warrant requirement. However, the instant case is distinguishable from Allison in important ways. In Allison, the officer re-entered the home without a warrant after the emergency was over. Unlike Allison, the emergency justifying the initial entry into the residence remained unresolved and the deputies had a reasonable basis to believe an emergency existed requiring their assistance.

Considering the totality of the circumstances in the case, the Court concluded the officers were acting reasonably when they investigated the possible emergency and properly limited their efforts to determining whether anyone was in need of assistance rather than investigating a crime. The emergency assistance exception applies in these circumstances and the deputies’ entry into and search of the Moulton residence was constitutional.

Affirmed.

J. Kite delivered the decision.

Link to the case: http://tinyurl.com/t284p .