Lead Opinion
¶ 1. Wе review a published decision of the court of appeals,
¶ 2. After being followed by police for erratic driving, Dumstrey drove inside of the parking garage underneath his apartment building, where he was stopped by
¶ 3. Therefore, the central question before us is whether the parking garage underneath the apartment building constitutes curtilage of Dumstrey's home such that it is protected by the Fourth Amendment. We also consider whether Dumstrey has shown a reasonable expectation of privacy in the parking garage, thereby warranting Fourth Amendment protections.
¶ 4. We conclude that the parking garage underneath this apartment building does not constitute curtilage of Dumstrey's home. We further conclude that Dumstrey has shown no reasonable expectation of privacy in the garage. Consequently, Dumstrey's stop and subsequent arrest in the garage did not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures. Stated otherwise, the seizure did not occur after a warrantless entry into a constitutionally protected area. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the court of appeals.
I. BACKGROUND
¶ 5. On the night of Friday, April 20, 2012, Officer Dejaríais, of the City of Waukesha Police Department, was off duty and was wearing plain clothes while operating his unmarked, personal vehicle. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Officer Dejaríais observed a vehicle, later determined to be driven by Dumstrey, pass him at a high rate of speed and then begin tailgating another vehicle. Officer Dejaríais subsequently passed both of these vehicles, at which point Dumstrey accelerated and began tailgating Officer Dejaríais. Dumstrey continued speeding and changing lanes, and at one point, he was straddling both lanes.
¶ 6. After watching Dumstrey's vehicle for some time, Officer Dejaríais called the police department dispatcher and requested a squad response to a possible intoxicated driver. Around that same time, Officer Dejaríais pulled up next to Dumstrey at a red light, rolled down his window, and made eye contact with him. Dumstrey likewise rolled down his window, at which point Officer Dejaríais displayed his police badge and photo identification card. Officer Dejаríais pointed out Dumstrey's erratic driving and instructed him to pull over and wait because the police were coming. Dumstrey stared back at him with a "blank look" and "appeared to be very intoxicated." His eyes were "sleepy looking" and "kind of glassy." After the light turned green, Dumstrey continued to sit at the intersection. When the light turned yellow, he proceeded to drive through the intersection.
¶ 7. After driving through the intersection, Dumstrey stopped in the middle of the traffic lane, and Officer Dejaríais again pulled up next to him and told him to wait for the police. Dumstrey continued to stare at Officer Dejaríais and then drove off toward his apartment complex, consisting of five or six apartment buildings. Officer Dejaríais followed Dumstrey to a parking lot outside one of the apartment
¶ 8. Officer Dejaríais followed Dumstrey and parked his personal vehicle underneath the garage door so that the door would not come down and lock out the police response that he had requested. Officer Dejaríais then exited his vehicle and walked into the parking garage, toward where Dumstrey had parked in his assigned parking place. As Officеr Dejaríais started approaching Dumstrey's vehicle, Dumstrey exited the vehicle and the two made contact. Officer Dejaríais instructed Dumstrey to stay put because the police were coming. He also displayed his police badge and photo identification, to which Dumstrey indicated disbelief that Officer Dejaríais was actually a police officer. Upon showing his badge and identification again, Dumstrey finally stopped and appeared to believe Officer Dejaríais. Shortly thereafter, the responding officer, Officer Lichucki, arrived on the scene.
¶ 9. Officer Lichucki entered the parking garage through the garage door under which Officer Dejaríais had parked his vehicle. Officer Lichucki immediately made contact with Dumstrey and began asking him investigative questions. Dumstrey stated that he had driven home from a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game at Miller Park and denied having consumed any alcohol. Upon his questioning, Officer Lichucki observed that Dumstrey was swaying back and forth and his "eyes were glassy and somewhat bloodshot." His speech was also "slurred," and Officer Lichucki could smell "an odor of intoxicants coming from his person." Officer Lichucki requested that Dumstrey submit to various field sobriety tests, all of which he refused to perform. At that point, Officer Lichucki arrested Dumstrey for OWI. Later, Dumstrey consented to an evidentiary blood test, which revealed that his blood alcohol level was .178.
¶ 10. Dumstrey moved to suppress, challenging the legality of the stop and subsequent arrest on the basis that his seizure occurred after a warrantless entry, in violation of the Fourth Amendment. At the hearing, testimony established that Dumstrey lives in the apartment building under which the parking garage is located. Approximately 30 tenants live in Dumstrey's apartment building, and the parking garage has approximately 30 parking places. The residents, including Dumstrey, pay for their assigned parking places in the garage and use the garage only for parking rather than for storage or other uses. Dumstrey testified that he can enter the parking garage only through the remote controlled garage door or through a locked door on the inside of the apartment building. All of the other tenants have access to the parking garage through these same means. In order to get from the parking garage to his home, Dumstrey uses the building's elevator. This elevator is likewise utilized by all other tenants.
¶ 11. The circuit court ultimately denied Dumstrey's motion, and he pled guilty to OWI, second offense, in violation of Wis. Stat. § 346.63(l)(a). The court of appeals affirmed, holding that there was no Fourth Amendment violation because the parking garage underneath the apartment building did not constitute curtilage of Dumstrey's home, and he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the parking garage.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶ 12. "[A] curtilage determination presents an issue of constitutional fact," State v. Martwick,
¶ 13. We uphold a circuit court's findings of historic fact unless they are clearly erroneous. State v. Fonte,
III. DISCUSSION
¶ 14. The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution 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, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
U.S. Const, amend. IV. Article 1, Section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution contains a substantively identical provision that we have historically interpreted in accord with the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. State v. Arias,
¶ 15. "Although our legal lexicon often presents 'searches and seizures' as an inseparable tandem, the two are constitutionally and analytically distinct." Id,., ¶ 25. Therefore, we first determine whether Dumstrey underwent a search or seizure for purposes of our Fourth Amendment analysis.
A. Search and Seizure
¶ 16. Searches affect privacy interests, such as bodily integrity and invasion of those places that a person has reserved for his or her individual use. See Katz v. United States,
1 17. We have recognized two types of seizure. State v. Young,
¶ 18. Officer Dejaríais followed Dumstrey into the parking garage in order to effectuate an investigatory stop as to whether he was operating while intoxicated. Once inside the garage, Officer Dejaríais stopped Dumstrey after he had exited his vehicle, displaying his police badge and identification. Dumstrey does not challenge whether Officer Dejaríais had reasonable suspicion to stop him; therefore, we assume, without deciding, that reasonable suspicion for the investigatory stop existed. Once Officer Dejaríais stopped Dumstrey with reasonable suspicion, Officer Lichucki questioned Dumstrey and observed his physical characteristics, including his swaying, slurred speech, glassy and bloodshot eyes, and the odor of intoxicants emanating from his person. Dumstrey similarly does not challenge whether these observations gave rise to probable cause for his arrest; therefore, we likewise assume, without deciding, that probable cause existed. Accordingly, we conclude that Dumstrey was seized in the parking garage when he was stopped and subsequently arrested for operating while intoxicated.
¶ 19. We further conclude that Dumstrey was not subjected to a search while stopped in the parking garage. Visual observation in the context of a lawful stop "does not constitute an independent search because it produces 'no additional invasion of [the suspect's] privacy interest.'" State v. Angiolo,
¶ 20. As set forth above, after Dumstrey was stopped, Officer Lichucki arrested him based on observations of his physical characteristics without further invading his bodily integrity. Therefore, aside from the stop and arrest, there was no additional invasion of Dumstrey's privacy interest. Consequently, the officers effectuated a seizure of Dumstrey, but no independent search occurred at that time.
¶ 21. We now consider whether Dumstrey's seizure occurred within a constitutionally protected area, thereby constituting a warrantless entry in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
B. Garage Entry
¶ 22. "It is a 'basic principle of Fourth Amendment law' that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable." Payton v. New York,
¶ 23. "The protection provided by the Fourth Amendment to a home also extends to the curtilage of a residence." Martwick,
1. Curtilage
¶ 24. Prior to undertaking a case specific curtilage analysis, however, it is necessary to first discuss existing Wisconsin and Supreme Court law with respect to the Fourth Amendment's protection of a home's curtilage. Dumstrey points us to Conrad v. State,
¶ 25. In so holding,
¶ 26. We stated in Conrad that "[t]he importance of Katz is . . . that it foretold the possibility that, even in a place traditionally thought to be an area protected by the [F]ourth [A]mendment, protection wоuld not be afforded in the absence of a subjective intent to exercise a reasonable expectation of privacy." Conrad,
¶ 27. In Conrad, we reasoned that the Katz test limited the curtilage test. We said,
[I]t appears that the rule of Katz, as explained by Wattenburg, is an explication or modification based on present-day concepts of the ancient curtilage test. It is also a limitation of it. Under the strict curtilage test, the subjective element of a reasonable expectation of privacy was omitted. There was, in effect, a legal presumption that all within the curtilage was protected.
Conrad,
¶ 28. Recently, however, the Supreme Court has clarified that "Fourth Amendment rights do not rise or fall with the Katz formulation." Jones,
¶ 29. In Florida v. Jardines, _ U.S. _,
¶ 30. Given the Supreme Court's recent emphasis on the distinction between the trespassory, curtilage analysis and the reasonable expectation analysis, we conclude that our statements in Conrad,
¶ 31. We previously have conducted a curtilage analysis to determine whether an
Read together, Payton and Oliver require that police obtain а warrant before entering either the home or its curtilage to make an arrest absent probable cause and exigent circumstances. Under Payton and Oliver, therefore, absent probable cause and exigent circumstances, [the defendant]'s warrantless arrest, although not occurring in his home, was unlawful if his fenced-in backyard falls within the curtilage of his home.
Id. at 183. We went on to conclude that the fenced-in backyard constituted curtilage of the home, thereby warranting the Fourth Amendment's protection against warrantless entry for arrest. Id. at 184. Other states and federal courts are in accord with this approach, holding that an arrest occurring outside of the home may be unlawful depending upon the nature of the area in question. See, e.g., United States v. Struckman,
¶ 32. We previously have adopted four factors set forth by the Supreme Court, United States v. Dunn,
¶ 33. As indicated above, Dumstrey relies on our passing statement in Conrad that the common storage area in an apartment building's basement was "clearly within the curtilage" of the home. Conrad,
a. proximity to the home
¶ 34. First, we look to the proximity of the parking garage to Dumstrey's home. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has held that, in an apartment building, "a tenant's [home] cannot reasonably be said to extend beyond his [or her] own apartment and perhaps any separate areas subject to his [or her] exclusive control." United States v. Cruz Pagan,
¶ 35. It is important to distinguish between the apartment building and Dumstrey's actual home. While the parking garage is located directly beneath the entire apartment building, it does not follow that it is therefore closely proximate to Dumstrey's home. His home cannot reasonably be said to constitute the entire apartment building. Rather, Dumstrey occupies only one of the 30 units located within the building. This is a far cry from a single family home's attached garage, which courts have consistently held constitutes curtilage. See State v. Davis,
¶ 36. In such cases, the garage is quite literally attached to the resident's home itself. For example, in Davis,
¶ 37. In Dumstrey's case, the garage is not similarly attached to his home itself but, rather, his home could be located anywhere within the entire 30-unit apartment building. Dumstrey takes an elevator from the parking garage, potentially up several levels, to gain access to the floor on which his home is located. We do not consider this to be closely proximate for Fourth Amendment purposes. Surely, his 29 fellow tenants would not consider their individual apartments to be a part of Dumstrey's home, and Dumstrey could not reasonably contend otherwise.
b. enclosure surrounding the home
¶ 38. Second, we consider whether the parking garage is included within an enclosure that also surrounds Dumstrey's home. According to testimony, the parking garage is located within the same overall structure as the apartment building in which Dumstrey's home is located. Tenants may gain direct access to the parking garage through a door located within the apartment building. From there, tenants have access to an elevator that allows them more convenient entry to their individual homes.
¶ 39. That the parking garage is included within the enclosure of the entire apartment building could tend to favor the garage being part of his home's curtilage. However, we note that, under this same rationale, Dumstrey's 29 fellow tenants' apartments are likewise included within the same enclosure as his own apartment. As indicated above, it cannot reasonably be contended that each of these tenants' homes constitutes part of Dumstrey's home for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. Therefore, we are not persuaded by the parking garage being included within the overall enclosure that encompasses the entire apartment building.
c. nature of use
¶ 40. Next, we look to the nature of the uses to which Dumstrey puts the parking garage. The overall curtilage inquiry is directed at protecting "the area to which extends the intimate activity associated with the sanctity of a [person's] home and the privacies of life." Oliver,
¶ 41. Dumstrey relies on the dissent from the court of appeals decision, suggesting that he utilizes the parking garage in the same manner as other Wisconsinites use attached garages on their single family homes. Dumstrey,
¶ 42. The uncontroverted testimony establishes that Dumstrey utilizes the parking garage solely for parking his vehicle. He puts the area to no other use such as storing personal belongings in an exclusively controlled area or conducting other personal activities such as we would equate with a garage attached to a single family home. While we conclude that Dumstrey's use does not warrant curtilage designation, we do not foreclose the possibility that some additional use of a somewhat comparable garage could constitute a use associated with intimate activity of the home or privacy of life.
d. protection from observation
¶ 43. Finally, we look to the steps Dumstrey has taken to protect the parking garage from observation by pаssersby within the garage. Dumstrey asserts that the entire parking garage is generally not open to the public since it is enclosed and accessible only through either the remote controlled garage door or the locked door on the inside of the apartment building. He contends that, since he pays for his assigned parking place in the garage, he has taken affirmative steps to protect the area from observation by people passing by the apartment building and enclosed garage.
¶ 44. The relevant inquiry, however, is not whether the parking garage is generally shielded from the public at large. Rather, we are concerned with whether Dumstrey has taken steps to shield the parking area from the view of passersby within the parking garage. As the Supreme Court of Massachusetts has noted with respect to an apartment building's enclosed parking area, "it is an enclosure encompassing a common area utilized by all the tenants and visitors of the building." McCarthy,
¶ 45. Similarly, all of Dumstrey's 29 fellow tenants and their guests are free to enter the parking garage. Upon their entranсe, Dumstrey cannot prevent such individuals from observing the parking area within the interior of the parking garage. Each day, countless tenants are not only free to, but are required to, pass through the parking garage in order to get from their own vehicles to the elevator to access their homes. Of course, this is in addition to any visitors of the 29 other tenants or of the landlord. Consequently, Dumstrey has simply taken no steps to protect the parking garage from observation by passersby within the garage.
¶ 46. The foregoing factors do not weigh in favor of curtilage designation. Accordingly, we conclude that the parking garage is not so intimately tied to Dumstrey's
2. Reasonable expectation of privacy
¶ 47. To make this determination, we consider two questions: (1) whether the person exhibits an actual, subjective expectation of privacy in the area; and (2) whether society is willing to recognize such an expectation as reasonable. Smith v. Maryland,
¶ 48. We are satisfied that the first two factors cut in favor of Dumstrey's reasonable expectation of privacy. Specifically, Dumstrey has a personal property interest in his parking place in the garage because he lives in the apartment building and pays for his assigned parking location. There is likewise no dispute over whether Dumstrey was lawfully on the premises. He opened the garage door with his remote controlled opener and parked his vehicle in his assigned place prior to being seized by Officer Dejaríais. The remaining factors, however, are not similarly helpful to Dumstrey.
¶ 49. Dumstrey has shown no dominion and control over the parking garage. As set forth above, he has no right to exclude the 29 other tenants or their guests, all of whom have the same right of access as he. This is the antithesis of dominion and control over the premises. Moreover, while the parking garage is shielded from the public at large, he has taken no precautions to seek privacy within the garage from the countlеss strangers that could be present daily. Additionally, Dumstrey puts the garage to no use in addition to parking his vehicle. With the 29 other tenants putting the garage to this same use, Dumstrey's use can in no way be considered "private." Finally, we are convinced that historical notions of privacy are simply not consistent with such a large number of people having the same right of access to the parking garage as Dumstrey himself. "[Cjommon areas in apartment buildings are, by their very definition, not private but shared areas, accessible to and used by other tenants." Eskridge, 256 Wis. 2d 314, ¶ 19.
¶ 50. Under the totality of circumstances, we doubt that Dumstrey harbors any actual expectation of privacy in the parking garage, and if he does, such an expectation is surely not reasonable. However, we do not foreclose the possibility that a person may exhibit a reasonable expectation of privacy in a smaller, more intimate multi-unit dwelling. See State v. Trecroci,
IV. CONCLUSION
¶ 51. In light of the foregoing, we conclude that the parking garage underneath this apartment building does not constitute curtilage of Dumstrey's home. We further conclude that Dumstrey has shown no reasonable expectation of privacy in the garage. Consequently, Dumstrey's stop and subsequent arrest in the garage did not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures. Stated otherwise, the seizure did not oсcur after a warrant-less entry into a constitutionally protected area. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the court of appeals.
By the Court. — The decision of the court of appeals is affirmed.
Notes
State v. Dumstrey,
The Honorable Donald J. Hassin, Jr. of Waukesha County presided.
All further references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2013-14 version, unless otherwise indicated.
One judge dissented, indicating that he would hold that the parking garage constituted both curtilage and an area protected by a reasonable expectation of privacy. Dumstrey,
However, after Dumstrey was arrested, a search occurred when he consented to the blood draw at the hospital. As Dumstrey does not challenge the blood draw on McNeely grounds, we need not address it. Missouri v. McNeely, _ U.S. __,
Similarly, in State v. Martwick,
We recognize that there may be an eventual difficulty in reconciling the notion that curtilage is afforded the same protections as the home against warrantless entry for arrest with the Supreme Court's holding in United States v. Santana,
In spite of the Supreme Court's characterization of the front doorway as a "public place" without any reference to curtilage, the Supreme Court also has stated that the front porch is the "classic exemplar" of a home's curtilage. Florida v. Jardines, _ U.S. _,
While we note this interesting dichotomy and recognize that there may be potential difficulty in reconciling Walker's protection against warrantless arrest on curtilage with San-
Concurrence Opinion
¶ 53. (concurring). The majority opinion concludes that "thе parking garage underneath this apartment building does not constitute curtilage of Dumstrey's home." Majority op., ¶ 4. I join the majority opinion in this conclusion and agree with its analysis in reaching it. In my view, the opinion does not preclude a different conclusion if there were materially different facts.
¶ 54. The majority opinion also concludes that "Dumstrey has shown no reasonable expectation of privacy" in this parking garage. Id. I also join the majority opinion in this conclusion.
¶ 55. I write separately because the opinion states the central question to be "whether the parking garage underneath the apartment building constitutes curtilage of Dumstrey's home such that it is protected by the Fourth Amendment." Id., ¶ 3 (emphasis added). Implicit in this question is the principle that police may not arrest a person on probable cause if the person is found within the curtilage of the person's home unless the police have an arrest warrant or there is a well-recognized exception to the warrant requirement such as exigent circumstances. I do not agree with a broad principle that police may not arrest a person on probable cause when the person is within the person's own curtilage but not within the home. In my view, a broad principle to this effect would constitute a serious mistake of law and an impractical hardship for law enforcement.
¶ 56. "[W]hat the Constitution forbids is not all searches and seizures, but unreasonable searches and seizures." Elkins v. United States,
¶ 57. In State v. Walker,
In deciding whether Walker's arrest was lawful, we begin by examining the nature of the protection that the fourth amendment provides to the home and the land next to the home. In Payton v. New York,445 U.S. 573 (1980), the United States Supreme Court held that thefourth amendment, made applicable to the states by the fourteenth amendment, prohibits police from making a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a felony suspect's home to arrest the suspect, absent probable cause and exigent circumstances. The Court has also determined that the fourth amendment protections that attach to the home likewise attach to the curtilage, which is defined generally as "the land immediately surrounding and associated with the home." Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S. 170 , 180 (1984). In Oliver, the Court reasoned that the curtilage receives the fourth amendment protections that attach to the home because, "[a]t common law, the curtilage is the area to which extends the intimate activity associated with the 'sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life.'" Id. (quoting Boyd v. United States,116 U.S. 616 , 630 (1886)).
Read together, Payton and Oliver require that police obtain a warrant before entering either thе home or its curtilage to make an arrest absent probable cause and exigent circumstances. Under Payton and Oliver, therefore, absent probable cause and exigent circumstances, Walker's warrantless arrest, although not occurring in his home, was unlawful if his fenced-in backyard falls within the curtilage of his home.
Walker,
¶ 58. In my view, the Walker opinion took considerable liberty with Oliver, which was a search case involving open fields, and was striving to distinguish open fields from curtilage. The Oliver Court noted that "the common law implies, as we reaffirm today, that no expectation of privacy legitimately attaches to open fields." Oliver,
¶ 59. Surely, no expectation of privacy legitimately attaches to a person's driveway or front yard, or even a backyard without special fencing, that is completely open to public view. "[T]he warrantless arrest of an individual in a public place upon probable cause [does] not violate the Fourth Amendment," and "[w]hat a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own house or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection." United States v. Santana,
¶ 60. Even the Walker court, in distinguishing Santana, recognized that police might make an arrest on curtilage if the curtilage is open to public view:
The threshold of one's house is a place [,] although on private property, that is used by various members of the public and is visible to any person that passes by the house. A fenced-in backyard, on the other hand, is not an area accessible to the public, and one is normally not visible to those passing by the front of the house.
Walker,
¶ 61. The Wayne LaFave treatise on search and seizure discusses curtilage arrests in a section entitled "Basis for Entry to Arrest":
The cases involving arrests made on the premises (in the broad sense of that term) outside rather than inside the threshold deserve some attention at this point, for quite similar considerations govern there. Typically by reliance upon the Payton declaration that ordinarilythe "threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant," the courts have upheld warrantless arrests made in such places as the common hallway of an apartment building, or the yard%rl91%r driveway,%rl92%r or porch%rl93%r or carport%rl94%r of a house. (There are conceivably special circumstances, however, in which some such place would carry with it such a high expectation of privacy that the Payton rule should govern.)
3 Wayne R. LaFave, Search & Seizure § 6.1(e), at 405-06 (5th ed. 2012) (footnotes omitted).
¶ 62. Footnotes 191-194 list multiple cases. Footnote 191 reads in part: "Contra: State v. Walker,
¶ 63. In a later supplement to footnote 191, La-Fave states:
Walker does not stand alone, as there is other authority to the effect that the on-curtilage lawful arrest limitations are just as stringent as those applicable to in-premises arrest. See note 57 supra. But, while the in-premises analogy arguably makes sense when the arrest occurs upon a part of the curtilage not open to visitors generally, e.g., the back yard in Walker, it hardly follows that the same should be true regarding the arrest of someone who, e.g., steps out onto his front porch at police request and then is apprehended there.
3 LaFave § 6.1(e) n.191, at 52 (Supp. 2015).
¶ 64. The majority opinion cites six cases for the proposition that the Fourth Amendment prohibits entry onto curtilage for the purpose of making a warrant-less arrest: United States v. Struckman,
¶ 65. The ambiguity in some of these cases requires comment. Despite making broad statements regarding Fourth Amendment protections on curtilage, these courts have hesitated to foreclose all arrests on curtilage that is open to public view. For example, in the Brown case, the court dutifully observed:
The Fourth Amendment protects persons from warrantless arrest inside their homes or other places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. One such place is the curtilage of the home. Bilida v. McCleod,211 F.3d 166 , 171 (1st Cir. 2000). Brown argues that he was standing in the curtilage of his home when he was arrested, and since the police lacked a warrant, the arrest violated the Fourth Amendment.
Brown,
¶ 66. However, Brown was standing in his driveway, and the court concluded that the driveway adjacent to his garage next to his trailer home was not part of the home's curtilage: "[0]ur past cases reveal a number of general principles with respect to driveways. If the relevant part of the driveway is freely exposed to public view, it does not fall within the curtilage." Id. at 65.
¶ 67. In the Lewis case from Iowa, the court stated that "[t]he protection provided by the Fourth Amendment has been extended to the curtilage." Lewis,
¶ 68. In the Karle case, the Ohio Court of Appeals found an arrest of the defendant "immediately outside his house" unlawful because the police did not have an arrest warrant. Karle,
As this court has held, "[a]n arrest in contravention of the Fourth Amendment will not a fortiori preclude subsequent criminal proceedings predicated upon the arrest. Rather, the exclusionary rule provides only that evidence derived from an illegal seizure— fruit of the poisonous tree — is subject to exclusion at trial.
Id. at 821 (citation omitted).
¶ 69. In State v. Mierz, from Washington, the court determined that there was an unlawful arrest in defendant's backyard that "was clearly not open to public use." Mierz,
¶ 70. This concurrence does not attempt to be a comprehensive exegesis of the subject of warrantless arrest on a defendant's curtilage. It is, however, intended to suggest that the language in the Walker case is too broad and that some courts that "talk the talk" do not "walk the walk" because walking the walk would make little sense in light of other United States Supreme Court precedent.
One post-2009 unpublished case by the Wisconsin court of appeals, citable for persuasive purposes, seems to limit Walker. In State v. Wieczorek, No. 2011AP1184-CR, unpublished slip op. (Wis. Ct. App. Nov. 8, 2011), an officer responded to a driver's home after receiving a dispatch regarding a hit and run. Wieczorek, unpublished slip op., ¶¶ 3-5. After knocking on the front door and engaging with the suspected drunk driver, the officer arrested the suspect on the suspect's porch. Id., ¶ 6. The circuit court concluded that the officer unconstitutionally seized the driver "because the seizure took place in the curtilage of his home," id., ¶ 8, but the court of appeals reversed, reasoning that the circuit court "erred by determining by reason of analogy that [the driver] had the same reasonable expectation of privacy in his front porch as the defendant in Walker had in his fenced-in backyard," id., ¶ 12. Rather than treating Walker as creating a per se rule prohibiting arrest on curtilage, the Wieczorek court preferred a case-by-case analysis of the privacy interests that would support or prohibit an arrest. Id., ¶¶ 11 — 12.
Dissenting Opinion
¶ 72. (dissenting). The maj ority's application of the Fourth Amend-merit's protections creates a great inequity among the people of Wisconsin. The Fourth Amendment protects the "right of the people tо be secure in their person, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures ..."
¶ 73. It does not distinguish among the types of dwellings we call home, giving one more protection than another. There is no room in the language for this court to do otherwise. Nevertheless, under the majority opinion, the protections of the home now apparently depend on whether an individual lives in a single-family or multi-family dwelling.
¶ 74. The majority concludes that Dumstrey's locked underground parking garage that is attached to his apartment
¶ 75. The analysis of the majority is infirm in a number of ways: (1) it conflates curtilage with a reasonable expectation of privacy; (2) it skews the analysis by shifting the focus onto the other tenants in Dumstrey's building, rather than on the government; and (3) it disregards controlling Supreme Court precedent. Perhaps its biggest infirmity is that it ignores the collective right that residents of apartments or condominiums have to exclude all individuals that do not have a legitimate purpose on their property.
¶ 76. Contrary to the majority, I conclude that the parking garage here is curtilage. As a result, the government's warrantless, non-consensual intrusion into Dumstrey's parking garage and the resulting search and seizure, violated Dumstrey's Fourth Amendment rights. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
I
¶ 77. The primary issue prеsented is whether Dumstrey's garage is curtilage. If it is, then it is considered part of the home for Fourth Amendment purposes.
¶ 78. "[W]hen it comes to the Fourth Amendment, the home is first among equals. At the Amendment's 'very core' stands 'the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.' " Florida v. Jardines,
¶ 79. The determination of whether Dumstrey's parking garage is curtilage presents a fact specific analysis. See, e.g., State v. Leutenegger,
¶ 80. Officer Dejaríais was off-duty, on his way home from a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game where he had a couple of beers when he first observed Dumstrey. After observing Dumstrey tailgating and passing other cars, Officer Dejaríais pulled up next to Dumstrey at a red light. Officer Dejaríais was not wearing a police uniform and was driving his own personal vehicle.
¶ 81. While both vehicles were stopped at a red light, Officer Dejaríais flashed his badge at Dumstrey, and verbally commanded him to wait for the police. Dumstrey stared at Officer Dejaríais with a blank look on his face. When the light turned green, Officer Dejaríais went through the intersectiоn and pulled over. Dumstrey eventually proceeded through the intersection and pulled up next to Officer Dejaríais. Again, Dumstrey did not say anything to Officer Dejaríais, stared at him, and drove away.
¶ 82. Officer Dejaríais followed Dumstrey into the driveway of an apartment building's parking lot. He watched Dumstrey enter an underground parking garage using a remote control to enter the locked garage door. After following Dumstrey into the underground parking garage, Officer Dejaríais parked his car directly under the door to immobilize it, deactivating
¶ 83. Dumstrey's parking garage is underground, locked and secured from the general public. Only tenants who pay for a parking spot can access the garage or use the elevator connecting the apartment building to the underground garage.
¶ 84. The State acknowledged that if the garage door had closed before Dejaríais forced it to remain open, it would have been unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment for the State to forcibly break and enter through the garage door to search. Even the majority acknowledges that "Dumstrey has a personal property interest in his parking place in the garage because he lives in the apartment building and pays for his assigned parking location." Majority op., ¶ 48.
¶ 85. At the outset of its curtilage analysis, the majority at length discusses Katz v. United States,
¶ 86. In Jones, the Supreme Court held that the installation of a GPS unit on an individual's vehicle, even if he had no reasonable expectation of privacy, was a search.
¶ 87. In Jardines, the Supreme Court held that a police officer's use of a trained police dog on a homeowner's porch was a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
¶ 88. As the Jardines court acknowledged, the porch of a home is a semi-public area. "[T]he knocker on the front door "is treated as an invitation or license to attempt an entry, justifying ingress to the home by solicitors, hawkers and peddlers of all kinds." Jardines,
¶ 89. After Jones and Jardines, courts must analyze first the trespass doctrine separately from the Katz "reasonable expectation of privacy test." Prior federal and state precedent holding that an area is not curtilage based on the Katz "reasonable expectation of privacy test" is no longer controlling. Under the current state of the law, we must weigh property rights more heavily than privacy considerations. The analysis is not whether the area is completely private. Rather, it is whether Dumstrey has a sufficient property interest that would entitle him to be free from government intrusion in this area.
¶ 90. In examining the contours of curtilage, courts look to United States v. Dunn, where the court identified four factors for determining whether an area is curtilage protected by the Fourth Amendment: (1) the proximity of the area to the home; (2) whether the area was within an enclosure surrounding the home; (3) the nature of the uses to which the area was put; and (4) the steps taken to protect the area from observation by passers-by.
¶ 91. The Dunn factors are not a precise formula, but are "useful analytical tools only to the degree that, in any given case, they bear upon the centrally relevant consideration — whether the area in question is so intimately tied to the home itself that it should be placed under the home's 'umbrella' of Fourth Amendment protection." Id. Although they fail to consider some of the realities of modern urban living, the factors nevertheless are helpful and Dunn remains a quintessential curtilage case.
A.
¶ 92. With the relevant facts and law in mind, we begin our curtilage discussion with the first Dunn factor: proximity to the home. Analyzing the garage's proximity to the home, the majority relies on United States v. Cruz Pagan,
¶ 93. In applying Cruz Pagan, the majority conflates a curtilage analysis with a reasonable expectation of privacy analysis. Cruz Pagan rests its determination of curtilage on the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy test. Cruz Pagan,
¶ 94. In addition, the Cruz Pagan court explicitly rejected the trespass analysis which we must now apply. Id. at 558 ("Whether or not the agents' entry was a technical trespass is not the relevant inquiry."). Based on the Katz test which no longer applies to a curtilage analysis under Dunn, the Cruz Pagan court concluded that "a person cannot have a reasonable expectation of privacy... in such a well travelled common area of an apartment house or condominium." Id. at 588.
¶ 95. The majority's analysis of proximity to the home is based on the premise, set forth in Cruz Pagan, that Dumstrey's home "cannot reasonably be said to constitute the entire apartment building." Majority op., ¶ 35. It explains that "his 29
¶ 96. According to the majority, if Dumstrey's individual apartment rather than the apartment building is his home, it is not proximate because he has to travel though shared hallways and use a shared elevator to get to the garage. Thus, the majority concludes that "[w]hile the parking garage is loсated directly beneath the entire apartment building, it does not follow that it is therefore closely proximate to Dumstrey's home." Majority op., ¶ 35.
¶ 97. Given that Cruz Pagan is not controlling as to a curtilage determination, the majority missteps in analyzing proximity only in terms of Dumstrey's individual apartment. Even if Dumstrey has to travel though common areas of his apartment to get to the garage, the real question here is distance, rather than the privacy he has in the hallway or elevator while he travels to the parking garage. Additionally, Cruz Pagan pre-dates Dunn and the court did not apply the requisite Dunn curtilage factors.
¶ 98. In this case, the parking garage is located directly underneath Dumstrey's apartment building. Dumstrey travels from his apartment to the parking garage through a locked hallway and elevator, without ever going outside. As this Court has explained, "no bright-line rule exists for ascertaining when a distance is in close proximity, and cases are often inconsistent in this regard." State v. Martwick,
B.
¶ 99. The majority's analysis of the second Dunn factor, whether the area is enclosed, is also based on the Cruz Pagan premise that Dumstrey's home is limited to his own apartment. It reasons that even though the underground parking garage is part of the same enclosure as the apartment building, "Dumstrey's 29 fellow tenants' apartments are likewise included within the same enclosure as his own apartment." Majority op., ¶ 39. According to the majority's analysis, the parking garage must be enclosed within the same four walls of Dumstrey's apartment only, because "it cannot reasonably be contended that each of these tenants' homes constitutes part of Dumstrey's home." Id. This logic finds no support in the law.
¶ 100. In United States v. Perea-Rey, a post -Jones case that applied the Dunn factors, the Ninth Circuit found that a carport
¶ 101. In Coffin v. Brandau, the Eleventh Circuit determined that "entering the garage as [the defendant] attempted to close it was a violation of the Fourth Amendment."
C.
¶ 102. In analyzing the nature of the use, the third Dunn factor, the majority cites to a string of cases that conclude unattached, unenclosed parking garages are not curtilage. See Majority Op., ¶ 41 (citing Williford,
¶ 103. As the dissent in the court of appeals decision recounted, "Dumstrey uses his garage in many of the same ways that middle America utilizes its garages in the 'privacies of life'-the keeping and storing of his vehicle in a secure setting, the ability to have a relatively warm vehicle during Wisconsin's frigid winters, the avoidance of wind and rain when accessing his vehicle, the safety and security of an elevator from garage to residence, and the avoidance of crime in the open streets." Dumstrey,
¶ 104. With respect to the final Dunn factor, the steps taken to protect the area from observation by passers-by, the majority attempts to skew the focus from the government intrusion to the other tenants in the building. The majority claims that "[t]he relevant inquiry □ is not whether the parking garage is generally shielded from the public at large. Rather, we are concerned with whether Dumstrey has taken steps to shield his assigned parking space from the view of passersby within the parking garage." Majority op., ¶ 44.
¶ 105. The majority's shift of exclusive focus on the other tenants finds no support in the law. Even the case the majority cites for this proposition states the opposite: "We have held that an area is not within the curtilage if it is open to public view, and is one which 'visitors and tenants on the property would pass on the way to the front door.'" Commonwealth v. McCarthy, 705 N.E.2d at 1111 (Mass. 1999) (quoting Commonwealth v. Simmons,
¶ 106. Under Jones and Jardines, the focus ought to be on whether the garage is private property on which the government cannot trespass, not whether other tenants who share private property also have a right to be there. "The fact that Dumstrey and his cotenants share the garage does not defeat the fact that each of the tenants has secured the garage from the general public and the government through their collective actions. Dumstrey may have a lessened amount of privacy among his fellow tenants, but he and his fellow tenants retain their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion." Dumstrey,
¶ 107. In its attempt to bolster its skewed focus, the majority relies on McCarthy, yet the actual facts of that case make it readily distinguishable. It addressed a visitor's parking space in an open parking lot. In McCarthy, the court explained that "[t]he parking space in which the defendant's car was situated when searched is not only an area that visitors would normally pass through on the way to the building, it is an area specifically designed to accommodate such use by visitors." McCarthy,
¶ 108. Mistakenly, the majority twice describes the parking lot in McCarthy as an "enclosed parking area." Majority op., ¶ 44. However, in discussing McCarthy, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts commented that "the space was not enclosed in any manner." Commonwealth v. Fernandez,
¶ 109. In conclusion, a curtilage analysis with the application of the Dunn factors is based on property rights and trespass, not a reasonable expectation of privacy. The
II
¶ 110. From the outset, the majority needlessly differentiates between whether a search or a seizure occurred in this case.
¶ 111. In Jones, "[t]he Government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining informаtion."
¶ 112. The court in Perea-Rey, which is factually similar to this case, determined that a border agent's trespass into a carport was a warrantless search that violated the Fourth Amendment.
¶ 113. Similarly, in this case, Officers Dejaríais and Lichuki occupied private property when they entered Dumstrey's
My vehicle was partially outside and the front end was insidе. That way I knew when the officers got there they would be able to get into the garage otherwise the garage door would have come down and they wouldn't have been able to get in. So I purposefully stayed in the center so the garage door wouldn't come down.
Officer Lichucki arrived and entered Dumstrey's garage through the door that was forcibly kept open by Officer DeJarlais's car.
¶ 114. The officers also entered the garage for the purpose of obtaining information. Lichucki testified that he entered the garage in order to begin "the investigation as far as what happened." As the majority explains, "Officer Lichucki questioned Dumstrey and observed his physical characteristics, including his swaying, slurred speech, glassy and bloodshot eyes, and the odor of intoxicants emanating from his person." Majority op., ¶ 18. He asked Dumstrey to perform three field sobriety tests and submit to a breathalyzer test.
¶ 115. The majority contends that no search occurred because Officer Lichucki arrested Dumstrey "based on observations of his physical characteristics without further invading his bodily integrity." Majority op., ¶ 20. It incorrectly relies on the "plain view" doctrine, which allows police to seize evidence in plain view without a warrant under certain circumstances. Arizona v. Hicks,
¶ 116. The correct determination of whether a search occurred depends on whether the parking garage is curtilage. The majority's analysis is backwards because it concluded that no search occurred before determining whether the garage is curtilage. It disregards controlling Supreme Court precedent by ignoring the rule of Jones and Jardines that trespass onto a protected area in order to obtain information is a search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. See Jones,
¶ 117. In sum, for the reasons set forth above, I conclude that the parking garage here is curtilage. As a result, the warrantless intrusion into Dumstrey's locked underground parking garage, and the resulting search and seizure, violated Dumstrey's Fourth Amendment rights. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
Although not cited in support of its "enclosure" analysis, the majority cites to a string of cases allegedly supporting its "nature of use" analysis that hold that unenclosed parking lots are not curtilage. Majority op., ¶ 41. Not a single cаse cited by the majority analyzes the enclosure in terms of whether it is contained within the four walls of an individual tenant's apartment.
Although we must apply the Dunn factors, I observe that this framework is imperfect in determining curtilage in an urban setting. The curtilage factors in Dunn arose in, and apply primarily to, rural dwellings. See Carrie Leonetti, Open Fields in The Inner City: Application of the Curtilage Doctrine to Urban and Suburban Areas, 15 Geo. Mason U. Civ. Rts. L. J. 297, 311 (2005) (explaining "[o]ne of the difficulties in the application of the Dunn factors to urban areas is their epistemological reliance upon a suburban conceptual framework. Factors like proximity to the home or the existence of a fence make sense only in a relatively rural area.").
As discussed above with respect to United States v. Cruz Pagan, the McCarthy case was decided prior to Jones and is of limited analytical value because its curtilage analysis is based in part on the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy test.
After concluding that Dumstrey's garage is curtilage and that the police trespassed in violation of the Fourth Amendment, I do not need to reach the issue of whether Dumstrey had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the garage. Under Jones, the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy test is only applicable to cases when there was no trespass onto a constitutionally protected area. See, e.g., United States v. Jones,
This issue was not briefed or argued by either of the parties, nor is it necessary to the outcome of the case.
The majority concedes that a blood draw is a search under the Fourth Amendment, but contends that no search occurred here because Dumstrey refused to submit to a breathalyzer test. Majority op., ¶ 20 n.5.
