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STATE v. ROTH5/13/1981
This appeal presents the issue of the constitutionality of inventorying the contents of a motor vehicle which Woodbury County sheriff's personnel impounded.
Deputy Sheriff David Amick testified:
Q. In reference to your routine investigations, what is the standard operating procedure for a sheriff or a deputy in Woodbury County in a situation where a motor vehicle is to be transported back to the station after an arrest has been made? A. Anytime a vehicle is left in our custody for any time whatsoever, for the purposes of towing or whatever the purpose may be, when the vehicle is our responsibility, we inventory the vehicle for any content that may be of value in the vehicle, and this is signed by whoever receives it from us, usually the wrecker service. Therefore, any valuables are recorded and signed for should anything come up missing at a later date that we'll know what was in the vehicle at the time it was towed.
Q. Do you do this as a matter of course in every investigation that you make that involves a motor vehicle? A. [305 NW2d Page 503]
Anytime the vehicle is seized or towed by our department, it's the department policy that it will be inventoried.
Q. And is your inventory limited to items that are in plain view, or do you go beyond that? A. We go beyond that. We look anywhere that we think there could be anything of value placed. Many times we'll find a billfold containing money under the seat, or tools in the trunk or whatever. Anywhere we think that someone would have access to, say a wrecker driver or anybody else, we check for value.
Q. And do you list those items that you find on a form? A. Anything that's of value we do.
At about 3:00 a.m. on April 11, 1979, Deputy Sheriff Royce G. McGuire was on duty in a patrol car in a rural area. After observing a car containing two occupants, he "pulled it over" and stopped it. He testified at the subsequent suppression hearing:
Q. And what were your reasons for pulling the vehicle over? A. Okay. As I approached the City of Sloan from the east — I was westbound — I noted the vehicle coming from the Interstate going east on 75 — or Highway 141. It approached the intersection of Highway 75, stopped at the stop sign, made a right turn, went approximately fifty to a hundred yards and made a U-turn, came back to the intersection and went east on 141, went approximately fifty to a hundred yards again, made another U-turn, came back to the Intersection and went north on Highway 75 through the city of Sloan.
Q. What were your reasons for pulling this car over? A. As I approached Highway 75 and started north, the vehicle was approximately 150 to 200 yards in front of me. As I followed it through the city of Sloan, it crossed over the center line, driving left of center approximately three times. And on the north edge of Sloan when it made corrective action to bring itself back into the north-bound lane, it went completely off of the traveled portion of the road onto the right-hand shoulder of the road.
Q. And what did that indicate to you, if anything? A. That the driver was either tired and sleepy, or possibly intoxicated.
Q. You then commenced to pull the vehicle over? A. That's correct.
McGuire observed and talked with the driver, administered field tests for intoxication, concluded that the driver was intoxicated, arrested him for driving while intoxicated, and placed him in the patrol car. McGuire then saw and talked with defendant Gary Joseph Roth, who was a passenger in and the owner of the car, smelled his breath, observed his eyes and balance, concluded that he also was intoxicated, arrested him
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