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Castle v. State5/5/2000
fficer Yamamoto violated Castle's rights, "that even if Castle broke the law by running in the middle of the street, his conduct was the direct result of Officer Yamamoto's unjustified attempt to seize him." I disagree that Officer Yamamoto violated Castle's rights, thereby justifying Castle's illegal conduct.
According to Officer Yamamoto's testimony, after he told Castle, "Sir, I need to talk to you for just a moment," Castle "ran out into the middle of the road right in front of my patrol car and started running [in the middle of the road] down 23rd." Yamamoto chased Castle, and ultimately managed to stop him, finding drugs. According to Judge Murphy's findings, "Castle began running into and down the middle of the street. He continued this behavior which created an imminent threat to his own safety and possibly the safety of other drivers for several blocks." The state argues that Castle's behavior of running down the street violated the law which requires a pedestrian to walk on a sidewalk, or, in the absence of a sidewalk, to walk on the edge of the roadway. The state concedes that Officer Yamamoto did not use this justification for the stop and Judge Murphy did not rely on this justification either. But the state points out that there is authority which would permit us to independently uphold the trial court's decision in spite of the fact that this theory was never advanced in the trial court. I am not sure it would be fair to uphold the trial court's decision on this basis because the record is so limited and the parties did not focus on this issue in the trial court. Castle had a right to refuse to talk to Officer Yamamoto and to walk away. I doubt that Officer Yamamoto could stop Castle for something as minor as a jaywalking violation. However, if Castle's actions were more serious and there was a significant independent ground for stopping him, I see no basis for suppression. Since I conclude that the record, findings, and briefing in this case are inadequate to resolve this issue, I would remand to allow the parties to focus on these issues.
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