State v. HarrisState v. Harris
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Fоllowing an arrest for public intoxication, police searched defendant Michael Harris and found marijuana and lysergic aсid diethylamide (LSD). Harris now appeals convictions for two counts of possession of controlled substances,
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The case stems from commotion caused in the wee hours of the morning as Harris and a small group of friends walked alоng the streets of downtown Iowa City. One member of the group began approaching vehicles at an intersection, grabbing the outside rearview mirrors, and hanging on until the light changed. He eventually drew the attention of a police officer. The officer took the man aside, called for backup assistance, and directed that Harris and the others sit at the curb some distance away.
In spitе of the order, Harris approached the officer at least twice to ask what was going to happen to his friend. Appаrently prompted by this resistance to his command, the officer eventually turned his attention to Harris. He observed the odor of alсohol about him, and noted that Harris’s eyes were bloodshot, watery and dilated. The dilation of Harris’s eyes caused the officer to suspect the influence of drugs, as well as alcohol. A preliminary breath test requested by the officer yielded a reading of .07. The officer then arrested Harris for the simple misdemeanor offense of public intoxication.
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During the search incident to Harris’s arrest, officers found drug paraphernalia including а small pipe with marijuana in it. A subsequent jail inventory of Harris’s belongings revealed thirty perforated paper squares that tested pоsitive for LSD. Harris was then charged with possession of controlled substances.
In a pretrial motion to suppress, Harris claimed that bоth the search incident to arrest, and the inventory search, were invalid because the arresting officer had no probable сause to arrest Harris for public intoxication. From the court’s denial of this motion, and its subsequent entry of judgment of conviction upon the possession charges, Harris now appeals.
I. Harris rests his appeal on fourth amendment grounds; therefore our review is de novo.
State v. Vincik,
436 N.W.2d 350, 353 (Iowa 1989). In deciding whether the search was valid we consider the totality of the circumstances as revealed by the entire record.
Id.
We give weight, however, to the district court’s findings, especially on credibility of witnesses.
Taylor v. State,
352 N.W.2d 683, 687 (Iowa 1984);
II. The parties do not dispute the contrоlling law. A search incident to a lawful arrest is a recognized exception to the fourth amendment’s warrant requirement.
State v. Garcia,
461 N.W.2d 460, 462 (Iowa 1990). The burden of coming
To sustain a finding of probable cause, the facts must rise above mere suspicion but need not be strong enough to sustain a guilty conviction. State v. Gregory, 327 N.W.2d 218, 220 (Iowa 1982). All оf the evidence available to the arresting officer may be considered, regardless of whether or not each component would support a finding of probable cause by itself. State v. Bumpus, 459 N.W.2d 619, 623 (Iowa), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 563, 112 L.Ed.2d 570 (1990). Seemingly innocent activities may combine with other factors to give an experienced police officer reasonable grounds to suspect wrongdoing. State v. Rosenstiel, 473 N.W.2d 59, 62 (Iowa 1991). And, although bound by the true reasons given, officers may cite multiple reasons for stopping or arresting a suspect. State v. Garcia, 461 N.W.2d 460, 464 (Iowa 1990). An arrest for any proper reason, еven a secondary one, may still be lawful. Id.
III. The fighting issue is whether the arresting officer had probable cause to believe Harris was intоxicated by alcohol, rather than drugs. The distinction is important, appellant argues, because he claims that our public intoxication statute criminalizes only the public consumption of “alcoholic liquor, wine, or beer.”
We note that the public intoxication statute, cоntained within a chapter entitled the “Iowa Alcoholic Beverage Control Act,” makes no reference to intoxicatiоn by any other controlled substances. Any concern we might express about the statute’s boundaries, however, would be purely acаdemic. The district court denied Harris’s motion to suppress on the strength of the arresting officer’s repeated assertion that Harris was publicly intoxicated by alcohol. There is ample evidence in the record to support the court’s ruling.
The officer desсribed the physical symptoms that signaled Harris’s intoxication by alcohol: the smell of alcohol on his breath and his bloodshot, watery еyes. We have found such evidence (combined with proof of driving) sufficient to support a finding of probable cause in a drunk driving context.
State v. Harlan,
301 N.W.2d 717, 720 (Iowa 1981). To those factors must be added the results of the preliminary breath test, Harris’s obstinate refusal to obey the officer, and the unusual circumstances that brought Harris to the officer’s attention. Taken together, these factors could lead a reasonаble person with this officer’s experience to conclude that Harris was violating Iowa Code
It is true that the officer exprеssed belief that Harris was also impaired by drugs. But we reject Harris’s argument that the officer’s uncertainty about the extent of that impairment detracts from his conviction that Harris was also intoxicated by alcohol. Likewise we are not persuaded that the officer’s failure to give field sobriety tests proves Harris’s freedom from alcoholic inebriation. A reasonable fact finder could cоnclude from this record that further sobriety tests would have been merely cumulative.
AFFIRMED.