Idaho v. Sutterfield
Annotate this CaseDefendant-respondent Dale Sutterfield stole a cell phone owned by a restaurant in Garden City, Idaho. A restaurant employee and his co-worker confronted Sutterfield, recovered the cell phone, and subsequently contacted the Garden City police for assistance. After the police arrived, the restaurant employee signed an affidavit and citizen’s arrest form. The police arrested Sutterfield for petit theft and conducted a search incident to arrest. During their search, the police found a small quantity of methamphetamine. Sutterfield was also arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance. Sutterfield moved to suppress the methamphetamine evidence, asserting his arrest and the search incident to that arrest violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 17 of the Idaho Constitution. After determining that Sutterfield had been arrested by a peace officer for a completed misdemeanor that occurred outside of the officer’s presence in violation of the Idaho Constitution, the district court granted Sutterfield’s motion to suppress. The district court dismissed the felony count of possession of a controlled substance, and Sutterfield pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor count of petit theft. The State timely appealed dismissal of the felony charge. The Idaho Supreme Court reversed, finding that the citizen’s arrest did not offend the Idaho Constitution, and defendant's arrest was not one by a peace officer for a completed misdemeanor that occurred outside of the officer’s presence. Therefore, the Court held the search-incident-to-an-arrest exception applied. Police were not precluded from conducting a warrantless search of Sutterfield after placing him under citizen’s arrest. Moreover, the evidence obtained by the officer during the search incident to the citizen’s arrest was not subject to the exclusionary rule. Therefore, the district court erred when it granted Sutterfield’s motion to suppress.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.