Motor Vehicles – OWI — community caretaker function

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Wisconsin Supreme Court

Criminal

Motor Vehicles – OWI — community caretaker function

Where police were following up on a motor vehicle accident, and the suspect’s brother broke down the defendant’s door, the police were acting in their community caretaker function in entering the defendant’s bedroom.

“We hold that the circuit court properly denied Gracia’s motion to suppress. The test for the community caretaker exception was recently laid out by this court in State v. Pinkard and looks at whether a search or seizure took place, whether the police exercised a bona fide community caretaker function, and whether the intrusion was reasonable based on the attendant circumstances. State v. Pinkard, 2010 WI 81, ¶29, 327 Wis. 2d 346, 785 N.W.2d 592. Here, the police were following up on a major single-vehicle accident which left the front end of the car driven by Gracia extensively damaged and a traffic pole completely knocked down. They validly entered the home on consent of Gracia’s brother and after his brother broke open Gracia’s bedroom door, without any prompting by the police, reasonably exercised their community caretaker function when they crossed the threshold into Gracia’s bedroom. The police acted on their concern that Gracia might have sustained a significant injury in the auto accident. Given these facts, the warrantless search was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution.”

Affirmed.

2011AP813-CR & 2011AP814 State v. Gracia

Crooks, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Holevoet, John, Madison; For Respondent: Perlman, David H., Madison; Levin, Adam Joseph, Oshkosh