C1-98-1872, State of Minnesota, petitioner, Appellant, vs. Jeffrey Lyle Robb, Respondent.
Case Date: 09/27/2001
Court: Supreme Court
Docket No: C1-98-1872, State of Minnesota, petitioner, Ap
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STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT C1-98-1872
S Y L L A B U S 1. If, when confronted by the arresting officers, an arrestee is so far removed from a vehicle, both in distance and time, that the arrestee has no opportunity to conceal a weapon, contraband or evidence within the vehicle, the Belton exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement does not apply. 2. The Chimel immediate control test is inapplicable when the arrestee's access to the vehicle is fully controlled by the arresting officer and not necessary to the safe and orderly processing of the arrest. Offering an arrestee access to his vehicle as a courtesy cannot be used to justify a search of the vehicle. 3. An individual's nervousness and refusal to consent to an officer's suggested course of action that would require the invasion of protected privacy interests does not provide the reasonable, articulable suspicion required by Terry and Long to justify a protective search. 4. The doctrine of inevitable discovery cannot be applied to a hypothetical inventory search when the state fails to provide evidence of the procedures that govern vehicle impoundment and impoundment is not necessary to safeguard the arrestee's property or public safety. Affirmed. Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc. O P I N I O N In this case we review the pretrial order of the district court suppressing, on Fourth Amendment grounds, a shotgun and ammunition seized during a search of respondent Jeffrey Lyle Robb's vehicle. We conclude, as did the court of appeals, that the state has failed to demonstrate, clearly and unequivocally, that the order was in error and we affirm. A shotgun and ammunition were seized during a search of Robb's vehicle in Anoka County. At 9 o'clock on a July evening in 1998, two Anoka County deputies on routine patrol at the Linwood Lake landing noticed a boat trailer with expired license tabs that did not belong to the trailer. The deputies were inspecting the trailer when a friend of Robb's drove up in Robb's Ford Bronco. Robb's friend told the deputies that the trailer belonged to Robb, who was in a boat on Linwood Lake. The deputies ran license plate checks and learned that the Bronco was registered to Robb, that it had no violations, and that the boat trailer was not registered to either Robb or his friend. The deputies also learned that there was a |
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