SEQUIM — The state Court of Appeals has struck down the Clallam County Superior Court drug conviction of a young woman, ruling that Sequim police did not have probable cause to arrest her for drug possession after they followed her into a restroom in a Sequim bar.
The arresting officer’s “mere suspicion of [Jessica L.] Young, wholly unsupported by articulable facts, is insufficient to justify seizing her,” the appellate court said in its May 1 opinion.
“There is no evidence in the record before us that the officers had any reason to suspect that Young was or would be engaged in criminal wrongdoing.”
Young, 26, was found guilty at her July 21, 2010, bench trial of possessing a controlled substance other than marijuana and was sentenced to seven months.
When arrested, she had in her purse two glass pipes, one with marijuana residue and the other with methamphetamine residue, according to court documents.
She did not serve jail time for the conviction after she was sentenced, Clallam County Jail Superintendent Ron Sukert said Wednesday.
The ruling “does not mean law enforcement was acting in bad faith,” county Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said.
“The courts are constantly changing the law, adding nuances to it, interpreting it.”
Port Angeles lawyer John Hayden of Clallam Public Defenders, who represented Young, said the court “did not break any new ground” with the ruling.
“We still in this day and age have the right to walk freely on our streets,” he said.
Hayden added that it was “hilarious” that his client was arrested in a women’s restroom.
The court said Superior Court Judge George L. Wood erred June 30, 2010, in denying a motion by Hayden that police had no right to question Young in the first place.
The court “made a discretionary decision, I made a discretionary decision, and legal minds will differ,” Wood said.
“I’m not going to go back and try to second-guess what I did.”
Sequim Police Officer Richard Larsen said he first became “suspicious” of Young, who police said was a transient, after Young walked into the Sequim Safeway supermarket, did not buy anything and left when she saw him.
Outside the store, she gave Larsen her name but did not have her identification and became “argumentative and evasive about why I was contacting her,” Larsen said in court records.
“The totality of everything was very awkward, very suspicious,” he said.
Larsen and Officer Chris Wright followed her in their patrol cars to behind a closed coin-operated laundry, where she was talking on a cellphone.
They questioned her again and obtained her Social Security number, according to court documents.
“She could have been planning to break into the place, for all I knew,” Larsen said, according to court documents.
The court said it was unconstitutional for the two officers to “seize” her by detaining and questioning her behind the coin-operated laundry.
Seizure can include “the threatening presence of several officers” and a “show of authority that has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen,” the court said.
After she walked away from the laundry, the officers checked her Social Security number against a statewide warrant list and discovered that she had two arrest warrants issued by the Fife Police Department, one of which was for an extraditable drug-related offense.
The officers traced her to a Sequim bar, where she was “behind the door in the bathroom talking on the phone,” Larsen said in his incident report.
“We told her she was under arrest,” he said
In its opinion, the appeals court said Young is not required to carry identification at all times.
“Young may also walk on public roads, behind or in front of closed businesses at night, while talking on a cellphone on her way to see a friend,” the court said.
“We find no authority holding that ‘awkward’ behavior alone is sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion, let alone probable cause,” the justices said.
“Because the police unconstitutionally seized Young behind the laundromat, the evidence of her Social Security number tainted the discovery of the arrest warrant, and the methamphetamine evidence must be suppressed,” the court said.
“Accordingly, we reverse Young’s conviction.”
Larsen was not available for comment Wednesday.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
