Motion to Suppress – Scope of Court Mandate

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WI Court of Appeals – District III

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Thomas J. Anker

Case No: 2015AP342-CR

Officials: Stark, P.J., Hruz and Seidl, JJ.

Practice Area: Motion to Suppress – Scope of Court Mandate

Thomas Anker appeals an order denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained following his arrest. In an earlier appeal, this court reversed the judgment of conviction after the State failed to contest, thereby conceding, the asserted lack of probable cause to arrest Anker. We remanded the matter for the circuit court to consider whether the evidence was nonetheless admissible under either the independent source doctrine or the doctrine of inevitable discovery, and to conduct further proceedings necessary to make those determinations. On remand, the State presented no evidence regarding those two doctrines, but rather presented additional evidence related to the probable cause issue. The circuit court then denied Anker’s motion to suppress, concluding the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest Anker and, in the alternative, the evidence sought to be suppressed would have been inevitably discovered without reliance on the premature arrest. We reverse the order because the probable cause determination ignores the law of the case and was beyond the scope of this court’s remand mandate, and because the record in this case does not support application of the inevitable discovery doctrine.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.