Exclusionary rule not applied to “inadvertent illegal behavior”

Stop based on no plates but with knowledge derived from what was later conceded by the state to be an illegal wiretap that defendant would have drugs on her person would not be excluded because the taint was dissipated. Moreover, exclusion here would serve no purpose of the exclusionary rule because it was “inadvertent illegal behavior.” Hall v. State, 2007 WY 138, 166 P.3d 875 (2007):

[*P10] Appellant was in violation of the law. The truck she was driving did not have valid plates. The officer had the clear right to be where he was (on a public street) when he observed that violation. He acted appropriately and according to protocol by pulling Appellant over, and by arresting her when he discovered she was driving with a suspended license. Nothing in the record suggests he lacked probable cause for that stop. He then followed the standard procedure by taking Appellant to the jail, where she was processed and booked as normal. The fact that the officer’s initial observation of Appellant was motivated by information garnered through an illegal wiretap does not change the fact that the evidence at issue was properly gathered during a stop and arrest fully supported by probable cause. This evidence, unlike the excluded evidence related to the drug sting, was a product of the traffic stop and subsequent pat-down booking search. As such, it need not be excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree.

[*P11] Even were it possible to apply the exclusionary rule to this evidence, there would be very little incentive for a court to do so under these facts. The purpose of the exclusionary rule is to deter law enforcement from obtaining evidence through illegal means. Wong Sun, 371 U.S. at 485-86, 83 S.Ct. at 416. However, the public has a vital “interest in prosecuting those accused of crime and having them acquitted or convicted on the basis of all the evidence which exposes the truth.” United States v. Ceccolini, 435 U.S. 268, 276, 98 S.Ct. 1054, 1060, 55 L.Ed.2d 268 (1978) (quoting Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 174-75, 89 S.Ct. 961, 967, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969)). “[A]pplication of the rule has been restricted to those areas where its remedial objectives are thought most efficaciously served.” Ceccolini, 435 U.S. at 275, 98 S.Ct. at 1060 (quoting United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338, 348, 94 S.Ct. 613, 620, 38 L.Ed.2d 561 (1974)). “The penalties visited upon the Government, and in turn upon the public because its officers have violated the law, must bear some relation to the purposes which the law is to serve.” Ceccolini, 435 U.S. at 279, 98 S.Ct at 1061-62.

[*P12] Application of the exclusionary rule and extension of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine would serve no purpose here. Law enforcement officers believed they were working pursuant to a valid, statutorily authorized wiretap. As the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals stated when it rejected a claim based on ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to notice the expiration of the wiretapping statute, “the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, several state district court judges, the Wyoming Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, dozens of defense attorneys, the Wyoming Legislature, the United States Attorney’s Office, and the Natrona County District Attorney’s Office also failed to notice the expiration of the statute.” United States v. Salazar, 323 F.3d 852, 857 (10th Cir. Wyo. 2003) (quotation marks omitted). We fail to see how law enforcement can be deterred from inadvertent illegal behavior.