People v. Kenway

Opinion

TODD, J. Following denial of a motion to suppress evidence (Pen. Code,1 § 1538.5), Richard Kenway entered a negotiated plea of guilty to grand theft (§ 487.1). The court suspended imposition of sentence and placed him on three years’ probation including a condition he serve one hundred eighty days in custody. Kenway appeals.

On March 9, 1988, at approximately 6 a.m., City of Westmoreland Police Officer William A. Hays stopped Ken way because he was driving a tractor and semitrailers with the right two taillights of the second trailer burned out and the marker clearance lights of the truck broken and showing white to the rear. The officer noticed the trailer contained baled hay. He asked Kenway for a driver’s license, registration, and load order for the hay. Kenway had no order. Hays asked him where he had weighed. Kenway did not provide satisfactory answers and the officer contacted the Imperial County sheriff’s office. A deputy arrived and arrested Kenway.

Officer Hays asked Kenway to see a hay pickup order because of a recently adopted county ordinance. Imperial County Ordinance section 62602 provides: “The Board of Supervisors intends to establish a means of identifying the owner of each ‘haystack’ and of ascertaining the legality of hayloading operations as to provide a means for controlling the alarming incidence of thefts of baled hay within the County.”

Section 62606 provides: “The truck driver conveying the hay shall retain his copy of each pickup order and attach it to the ‘weighmaster certificate’ relating to the particular load for which the pick up order was issued. Pick up orders retained hereunder shall be subject to review by Sheriff or Director of Weights and Measures upon request.”

Kenway contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress. He argues the officer’s inquiry into the pickup order was unlawful and all evidence which is a fruit of that inquiry should be suppressed. He also argues statements he made after the request should be suppressed since he was interrogated absent a Miranda warning.2

[444]The parties agree Officer Hays lawfully stopped and detained Kenway for a traffic violation, Kenway argues after stopping him, the officer deprived him of his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure by asking to see his hay pickup order. He agrees the officer lawfully could request to see his driver’s license and vehicle registration (see Delaware v. Prouse (1979) 440 U.S. 648, 659 [59 L.Ed.2d 660, 671, 99 S.Ct. 1391]; People v. McGaughran (1979) 25 Cal.3d 577, 584 [159 Cal.Rptr. 191, 601 P.2d 207]). However, relying primarily upon Delaware v. Prouse, he argues the officer’s request to see a pickup order converted the lawful detention into a general search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.