IA: Where def acquitted, denial of motion to suppress not preclusive in subsequent forfeiture action

Claimant’s acquittal of drug charges after denial of his motion to suppress gives the motion to suppress no preclusive effect. The stop here was unreasonable because it was dragged out, and the forfeiture is reversed. In the Matter of Property Seized from Pardee, 14-0029 (Dec. 11, 2015):

Before us, Pardee maintains that res judicata does not apply and that the stop violated the United States and Iowa Constitutions because: (1) pretextual traffic stops are unconstitutional, (2) the State’s targeting of out-of-state vehicles in its criminal interdiction efforts is a violation of equal protection, (3) the trooper unconstitutionally prolonged and expanded the stop beyond what was necessary to address the traffic violations, and (4) the narcotics dog and its handler were not shown to be reliable. We agree that res judicata does not apply and further hold that the trooper prolonged the stop in violation of the Fourth Amendment beyond what was necessary to address the observed traffic violations. Accordingly, without reaching the remainder of Pardee’s arguments, we reverse the denial of his motion to suppress and remand for further proceedings.

On issue preclusion:

The first issue we must resolve is whether the district court’s denial of Pardee’s motion to suppress in the criminal case has preclusive effect in this case. We agree with the court of appeals’ comprehensive discussion of this issue, which concludes there is no preclusive effect. For present purposes we need to focus on issue preclusion—not claim preclusion. Whether evidence should be admitted or not is an issue, not a claim.

Issue preclusion does not apply here because Pardee was acquitted in the criminal case. Hence, the trial court’s determination of the motion to suppress against Pardee was not necessary to the final judgment. See George v. D.W. Zinser Co., 762 N.W.2d 865, 868 (Iowa 2009) (stating for issue preclusion to apply, “the determination made of the issue in the prior action must have been necessary and essential to the resulting judgment”); Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27 cmt. h, at 258 (Am. Law. Inst. 1982) (requiring that the prior determination be “essential to” the final judgment and noting that where the judgment is “not dependent” upon the determination, the determination does not have issue preclusive effect); cf. Property v. State, No. 06–11–00113–CV, 2012 WL 1940805, at *4 (Tex. Ct. App. May 22, 2012) (finding that the denial of a motion to suppress in a criminal case had collateral estoppel effect where “[t]he trial court’s determination that the fruits of Cruson’s search were not subject to suppression was necessary to the prior criminal [conviction]”).