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Castro v. State4/8/1998
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND JUDGMENT
Charles A. Castro appeals two separate convictions for driving while intoxicated, AS 28.35.030(a). In both cases, Castro argues that there was no probable cause for his arrest, and therefore the evidence derived from those arrests must be suppressed. We conclude that there was probable cause to arrest Castro in both cases, and we therefore affirm his convictions.
The Fairbanks Case (File No. A-6066)
On July 15, 1995, the bartender at the Moose Creek Lodge asked two patrons to leave because they had become rowdy and obnoxious. The bartender, Bonnie Hockin, watched the two men leave. She saw them drive their car into a ditch, then wander the parking lot, inspecting vehicles while drinking from a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag. Hockin called the police. When the two men got back into their car and left the area, Hockin called the police again. She described the two men as a short Hispanic wearing a blue-jean outfit and a large, blond Anglo wearing a salmon-colored shirt. Hockin told the police that the Hispanic male was driving the car, and that he was intoxicated.
Responding to this report, Alaska State Trooper Daniel Hickman started driving toward Moose Creek. He ultimately joined police officers from Fairbanks and from North Pole who were trying to stop the suspect car. The driver of the car ignored instructions to pull over; instead, he sped away from the officers at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour, driving erratically. The officers finally apprehended the car after it crashed through a barricade and then became high-centered on a berm.
Trooper Hickman approached the car and saw that it contained two men: a large white male wearing a salmon-colored shirt (David Powell), who was sitting in the passenger seat, and a Hispanic male (Castro), who was in the back seat. Hickman told both men to get out of the car. As soon as the two men got out of the car, the officers placed them on their knees and handcuffed them. Castro asked the officers whether they had caught the "black man" who had been driving the car. Castro asserted that this third man had fled the car moments after it became stuck. The officers checked the vehicle registration and discovered that the car was indeed registered to a black male. They were preparing to search the area for this purported third occupant of the car, until Hickman noticed that the freshly-turned earth surrounding the car contained no trace of footprints leaving the vehicle. Hickman then called dispatch and inquired whether a black man had been reported driving the car; the dispatcher replied that, according to the report, a "Mexican male" had been driving the car. In the meantime, Powell (the white male who had been found in the passenger seat) told the police that Castro had been driving the car.
Upon learning from these two sources that Castro had been driving the car, and observing that Castro was obviously intoxicated, Hickman told Castro that he was under arrest for driving while intoxicated. A subsequent breath test showed that Castro's blood-alcohol level was .159 percent.
Castro asked the district court to suppress the breath-test result and all other evidence stemming from his arrest. He claimed that he had been arrested at the moment the police placed handcuffs on him, and he further claimed that, at that moment, the police had not had probable cause to make an arrest. District Court Judge Charles Pengilly ruled that the handcuffing had not constituted an "arrest". Rather, Judge Pengilly ruled, the police decision to handcuff the two occupants of the car had been a part of the investigative stop, a reasonable precaution given the fact that the t
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