This criminal appeal is before us on remand from the Oregon Supreme Court, State v. Delong,
The Supreme Court has remanded for us to address two issues that we did not reach in Delong I: (1) whether the search of the fanny pack exceeded the scope of defendant’s invitation to search, as defendant contends, and (2) whether the statements that defendant made to the deputy after receiving belated Miranda warnings were admissible, in light of the Supreme Court’s conclusion that those statements did not unlawfully derive from the Article I, section 12, violation. Delong II,
We take the facts from the opinions in Delong I and Delong II and the trial court record. A deputy sheriff,
“gave Robeson his name but could not produce a driver’s license or other picture identification. Driving without a license is a traffic offense; however, it is a defense to that charge that the driver in fact had a valid license. See ORS 807.570. Robeson sought to determine defendant’s identity so that he could see if defendant in fact had a valid license. *** Robeson also wanted to identify defendant to see if there were a reason why defendant apparently had sought to avoid him; specifically, Robeson wanted to see if there were an outstanding warrant for defendant’s arrest.
“There was a passenger in defendant’s car, and Robeson removed defendant from his car, frisked and handcuffed him, and put him in the backseat of the patrol car before asking him some background questions to verify his identity. At that point, Robeson had not advised defendant of his Miranda rights.”
Delong II,
A second deputy, Poe, arrived to assist around the time that Robeson was taking defendant into custody.
“Robeson and Poe both attempted to identify defendant. Robeson asked defendant questions about his identity and filled out a form based on defendant’s responses. Defendant told Robeson that he was from Utah and gave him other identifying information, which Robeson then gave to dispatch to search for an Oregon or Utah driver’s license. Meanwhile, Poe used his in-car computer to search for more information about defendant, including looking for [outstanding] warrants.”
Delong I,
Robeson believed, generally, that defendant was not being truthful and that “something [was] going on.” “Before dispatch responded, Robeson further asked defendant,” in Robeson’s words, “whether there was ‘anything in
“Poe found that there was a restraining order entered against defendant and informed Robeson.” Delong I,
“Poe and Robeson then returned to defendant after a third deputy, Thornton, arrived to assist. Poe gave defendant Miranda warnings and asked questions about what Poe had found in the car. Defendant then made incriminating statements, including admitting that the fanny pack was his and that there were drug paraphernalia in it. Thornton’s field test on one of the plastic bags indicated that the white residue it contained was methamphetamine.”
Id.
The trial court denied defendant’s motion to suppress defendant’s statements and the physical evidence, and defendant was then convicted of a drug charge. Id. at 721-22. On appeal, we reversed, concluding that defendant’s unwarned statement offering consent to a search was the result of the Article I, section 12, violation when the deputy took defendant into custody and placed him in the back of the patrol car. Id. at 726-27. We did not reach defendant’s arguments that Poe’s search of the fanny pack exceeded the scope of defendant’s consent to search the vehicle, and that, therefore, the physical evidence discovered and defendant’s subsequent statements must be suppressed.
Whether a search exceeded the scope of a defendant’s consent is a question of law. State v. Arroyo-Sotelo,
The police must have a specific constitutional justification for a warrantless search of a closed container within a car. See, e.g., id. at 346 (stating that, absent a constitutional basis to justify a search of a zipped duffel bag in a car, evidence inside the duffel bag must be suppressed). That is so because Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution protects a person’s separate privacy interests in a vehicle and in items within that vehicle. See, e.g., State v. Kruchek,
The scope of consent “is determined by reference to what a typical, reasonable person would have understood by the exchange between the officer and the suspect * * * in light of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the grant of consent in a particular case.” State v. Harvey,
“One of the best indicators of the intended scope of a search authorized by consent is the content of the request for consent.” Arroyo-Sotelo,
If a request for consent is vague or the law enforcement officer does not specify the target of the search, the request for consent extends to objects and areas that “a reasonable person in [the] defendant’s position would have understood” to be included based on the circumstances. Lamoreux,
For example, in Jacobsen, to which defendant likens his case, we held that a general request for consent to search a car did not extend to a zipped duffel bag in the car, when no circumstances reasonably indicated that the officers intended to search for contraband that could be hidden in the bag.
In contrast, a general request for consent to search a car will extend to closed containers if, under the circumstances, a reasonable person would have known that the law enforcement officer is looking for something that could be hidden in closed containers. When the officer expressly asks to search for specific contraband that could be hidden, a reasonable person would know that the scope of the consent to a search extends to such hiding places. See, e.g., Allen,
When the officer does not specify the objects of the search, the same “reasonable person would have known” standard can be met if other circumstances reasonably indicated to the person giving consent what those objects were. For example, in Lamoreux,
In this case, the deputy did not specifically identify any items in his communication with defendant. A reasonable person would not have understood the scope of the deputies’ interest in the car to extend to the contents of the
Nor would a reasonable person infer, based on the surrounding circumstances, that the deputies were going to look for small items, such as the drug paraphernalia they found, that could be hidden in a fanny pack. At the time that Robeson asked defendant about anything of concern being in the car, the deputy had focused solely on obtaining information from defendant to verify his identity, after stopping the car for a seatbelt violation. The record contains no evidence that the deputies at the traffic stop communicated a belief that defendant had drugs in the car. Therefore, the deputy’s question regarding anything of concern in the car did not reasonably communicate that he was interested in looking through closed containers in the car for drugs.
And, nothing in defendant’s response conveyed to the police that they could search all closed containers in the car. See Jacobsen,
In sum, in this case, which began as a traffic stop for a seat belt violation, the state did not meet its burden as a matter of law. See ORS 133.693(4) (“Where the motion to suppress challenges evidence seized as the result of a war-rantless search, the burden of proving by a preponderance
We next turn to the issue of defendant’s subsequent statements, which he made after receiving belated Miranda warnings and after the deputies showed him the drug paraphernalia that they had found in the fanny pack. The Supreme Court has directed us to do the following on remand:
“If the Court of Appeals finds that the deputy’s search did not exceed the scope of defendant’s invitation, then the remaining question is whether the statements that defendant made to the deputy after receiving belated Miranda warnings were admissible. As we understand defendant’s argument on that issue, it rests on the proposition that the deputies unlawfully discovered the physical evidence in his car and that, as a result, the belated Miranda warnings he received were not effective to render his statements voluntary. If the deputies lawfully discovered the physical evidence in defendant’s pack, then the physical evidence and defendant’s warned statements presumably would be admissible. Conversely, if the deputy’s search exceeded the scope of defendant’s consent, then the question will be, as it was in Vondehn, whether the belated Miranda warnings were effective. See [State v.] Vondehn, 348 Or at [462,] 485-86 [,236 P3d 691 (2010)] (holding that belated Miranda warnings were effective even though officers unlawfully had discovered marijuana in the defendant’s backpack).”
Delong II,
We begin by emphasizing that, unlike in this case, Vondehn addressed the circumstances under which belated Miranda warnings will cure an earlier Article I, section 12, violation so that post-Miranda statements are admissible.
“[t]he Oregon Constitution requires Miranda warnings to ensure that a waiver of the rights conferred by Article I, section 12, is knowing as well as voluntary. *** When the police then correct course and give the required warnings, the relevant inquiry must be whether the belated warnings are effective and accomplish the purpose for which they are intended.”
Id. at 480. In determining whether belated Miranda warnings were effective,
“courts should consider all relevant circumstances, including * * * the completeness and detail of the questions and answers in the first round of interrogation, the overlapping content of the statements given by the suspect, the timing and setting of the first and the second interrogation sessions, the continuity of police personnel, the degree to which the interrogator’s questions treated the second round of interrogation as continuous with the first, and whether the police cautioned that the earlier unwarned statement could not be used in any subsequent prosecution.”
Id. at 482. The overarching question is “whether the Miranda warnings, when given, accurately and effectively conveyed the information necessary to a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right against self-incrimination.” Id. at 485.
The defendant moved to suppress his pr e-Miranda statements, the marijuana, and his post-Miranda statements. Id. at 464. In our decision in State v. Vondehn,
On review, the Supreme Court in Vondehn did not adopt that reasoning or consider whether the police questioning of the defendant after the police had the drugs in hand affected the analysis of the effectiveness of the belated Miranda warnings that the defendant received. Rather, the court held that the defendant’s post -Miranda statements should have been admitted because the belated Miranda warnings “accurately and effectively communicated that defendant had, from that time forth, a right to remain silent.” Id. at 486. In coming to that conclusion, the Supreme Court applied its multi-factor test and emphasized four facts.
First, the court noted, “there was a marked difference in the questioning before and after” the police issued Miranda warnings:
“The unwarned questions were routine in nature and consumed less than a minute of time. The second warned questions were significantly more detailed and probing. This was not a situation * * * in which the police conducted extensive questioning and elicited significant detailed facts in the first interrogation session and then repeated that questioning post -Miranda"
Id. at 485 (footnote omitted). Second, “there was a [five-minute] break in the questioning,” which, “[g]iven that the first set of questions consumed less than a minute, *** was an objective indication that the situation had changed and was governed by new rules.” Id. Third, the fact that the interrogating officer “did not caution defendant that his earlier unwarned statements could not be used in any subsequent proceeding” was not dispositive, because “that caution may militate *** in favor of finding that the officer’s belated Miranda warnings were effective, but such a caution is not necessary to that result.” Id. at 486. Finally, “although defendant was under arrest and handcuffed when [the police] questioned him and was thus in inherently
However, unlike in Vondehn, this case involves an intervening warrantless search that violated Article I, section 9. See State v. Baker,
In State v. Unger,
We ultimately agree that defendant’s post-Miranda statements must be suppressed, but we do so only after reviewing the range of considerations in the Unger exploitation test, including the giving of belated Miranda warnings in this case. First, the circumstances surrounding the unlawful search weigh in favor of suppression. The police conduct was intrusive; it involved an invasion of defendant’s privacy interest in his possessions. And, the police misconduct was purposeful and flagrant. The deputies conducted the unlawful search in order to hunt for unspecified incriminating evidence. At the time that Robeson searched the car, defendant had made no incriminating statements regarding drugs, and Robeson had only a general belief that defendant was not being truthful and that “something [was] going on.” The unlawful search of the fanny pack revealed the methamphetamine, which provided the specific basis for Robeson to question defendant about illegal drug possession and directly prompted defendant’s incriminating
Second, no intervening or mitigating circumstances attenuated the taint of the unlawful search. After discovering the methamphetamine, Poe immediately confronted defendant with it, issued Miranda warnings, and interrogated defendant about the drugs; therefore, the belated Miranda warnings were the only intervening circumstance. Under Vondehn, those warnings were accurate and effective to inform defendant of his Article I, section 12, right against self-incrimination. As in Vondehn, here, the police interrogated defendant while he was handcuffed and in the patrol car. In each case, the two sets of interrogation were separated by a search of the car, which yielded incriminating physical evidence and led to additional questioning about that evidence. In each case, the first set of questioning— mostly about the defendant’s identity — was “routine” and concerned “marked [ly] difieren [t] ” subject matter than the second set of questioning, which concerned the defendant’s relationship to the drugs discovered. Vondehn,
Yet, even though the belated Miranda warnings were accurate and effective, they were insufficient to attenuate the unlawful search that triggered them. Miranda warnings do not, per se, attenuate police misconduct, and that is particularly the case when police misconduct triggers Miranda warnings in the first place. See Ayles,
Here, as in Nell, the unlawful search of defendant’s property revealed drugs, which triggered Miranda warnings and caused defendant to make incriminating statements about the drugs. And, as in Ayles, the initial unlawful seizure led to that unlawful search. The illegal search put defendant in the no-win position of confessing to owning the fanny pack and drugs or incriminating, by process of elimination, the other passenger in the car. Without the illegal search, defendant would not have been in that position. Therefore, the police exploited the illegal search to gain an advantage over defendant. Cf. State v. Olendorff,
Thus, we conclude that the state has not met its burden to prove that, under the totality of the circumstances,
Reversed and remanded.
Notes
Article I, section 12, provides that “[n]o person shall be put in jeopardy twice for the same offence [sic], nor be compelled in any criminal prosecution to testify against himself.”
