Opinion
No. COA11–1108.
2012-04-3
In the Matter of V.C.R.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by LaToya B. Powell, for the State. Law Offices of F. Bryan Brice, Jr., by Matthew D. Quinn; and The Frickey Law Firm, PLLC, by Michael A. Frickey, for Juvenile–Appellant.
Appeal by Juvenile from adjudication order entered 21 March 2011 by Judge Jennifer Knox in Wake County District Court. Heard in the Court of Appeals 22 February 2012. Attorney General Roy Cooper, by LaToya B. Powell, for the State. Law Offices of F. Bryan Brice, Jr., by Matthew D. Quinn; and The Frickey Law Firm, PLLC, by Michael A. Frickey, for Juvenile–Appellant.
BEASLEY, Judge.
Juvenile V.C.R. appeals from the trial court's denial of her Motion to Suppress and the resulting disposition order for misdemeanor simple possession of marijuana. For the reasons set forth below, we remand to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The pseudonym V.C.R. is used to protect the identity of the minor child.
Sergeant D.L. Bond (Bond) of the Raleigh Police Department was patrolling the Thornton's Square town home community on 9 June 2010 when he spotted a group of juveniles walking down the sidewalk. As Bond approached in his patrol car, he observed V.C.R. smoking a cigarette. Bond stopped and asked V.C.R. how old she was. V.C.R. responded that she was 15 years old. Bond asked V.C.R. to put out her cigarette and give him the pack of cigarettes she was holding. V.C.R. complied with both requests.
Bond began to drive away. When he was about ten to twenty yards away, he heard a female voice say “What the f–––, man.” In response, Bond stopped his vehicle, got out, and approached the group. He ordered all of the juveniles to keep walking except V.C.R ., whom he ordered to stay with him. He then asked V.C.R. for her identification. At one point during their conversation, V.C.R. raised her arms in the air, revealing what appeared to be a round bulge in her right front pocket. Bond instructed V.C.R. to empty her pockets and turn them inside out. V.C.R. emptied her pockets, revealing a bag of marijuana.
On 19 November 2010, a Juvenile Petition was filed alleging that V.C.R. committed an act of simple misdemeanor possession of one-half ounce or less of marijuana. V.C.R. moved to suppress evidence obtained from the encounter between her and Bond. On was adjudicated delinquent. From this adjudication, V.C.R. now appeals.
I.
“On review of a motion to suppress evidence, an appellate court determines whether the trial court's findings of fact are supported by the evidence and whether the findings of fact support the conclusions of law.” State v. Haislip, 362 N.C. 499, 499, 666 S.E.2d 757, 758 (2008). Thus, “[t]he trial court's findings of fact are critical to our substantive review of an appellant's arguments.” Id. at 500, 666 S.E.2d at 758. When ruling on V.C.R.'s motion to suppress, the trial court stated:
THE COURT: Thank you. Well, I think the argument that—because a police officer is trained to not respond to abusive language, therefore, it's not—doesn't qualify as essentially disorderly conduct that [sic] fails. That would leave everybody open to just go ahead and say these things and other things to police officers whenever they felt like it. Anyway, I'm going to deny the motion.
Aside from that statement, the transcript lacks any formal, specific findings of fact or conclusions of law as to what transpired on 9 June 2010. We conclude that the record before us is inadequate to permit meaningful appellate review of the questions of law raised by V.C.R.'s appeal. Accordingly, we remand the case to the Wake County District Court for written findings of fact and conclusions of law “sufficient to resolve all issues raised by the motion to suppress.” Id. at 500, 666 S.E.2d at 759.
Remanded. Judges BRYANT and HUNTER, JR. concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).