State v. Bryars

A verbal encounter rises to the level of a seizure “when the content of the questions, the manner of asking them, or other actions that police take (along with the circumstances in which they take them) would convey to a reasonable person that the police are exercising their authority to coercively detain the citizen[.]” State v. Backstrand, 354 Or 392, 412 (2013).

Defendant was approached and questioned by Sergeant Youncs while seated between a building's two AC units in the early morning hours. It was not until after the initial encounter that Youncs confirmed Defendant was trespassing, which prompted him to reapproach Defendant and search him, ultimately locating methamphetamine on his person before reading Defendant his Miranda rights. Defendant assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained after his criminal trespass arrest, arguing Youncs seized Defendant without subjective reasonable suspicion. A verbal encounter rises to the level of a seizure “when the content of the questions, the manner of asking them, or other actions that police take (along with the circumstances in which they take them) would convey to a reasonable person that the police are exercising their authority to coercively detain the citizen[.]” State v. Backstrand, 354 Or 392, 412 (2013). The Court ruled in Defendant’s favor, concluding that Defendant was seized during the initial encounter before Youncs confirmed that Defendant was trespassing because of the content, nature, and manner of Youncs’s drug-related questioning along with Youncs’s physical positioning indicating that Defendant was not free to leave. Further, nothing in the record established a subjective reasonable suspicion that Defendant had committed a crime at the time of the seizure. Reversed and remanded.