MEMORANDUM DECISION
Feb 12 2015, 10:15 am
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this
Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as
precedent or cited before any court except for the
purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata,
collateral estoppel, or the law of the case.
ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Barbara J. Simmons Gregory F. Zoeller
Oldenburg, Indiana Attorney General of Indiana
Kenneth E. Biggins
Deputy Attorney General
Indianapolis, Indiana
IN THE
COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA
Larry Cameron, February 12, 2015
Appellant-Defendant, Court of Appeals Case No.
49A02-1407-CR-505
v.
Appeal from the Marion Superior
State of Indiana, Court
The Honorable David Cook, Judge
Appellee-Plaintiff. Cause No. 49F07-1311-CM-73790
Robb, Judge.
Case Summary and Issue
[1] Following a bench trial, Larry Cameron was found guilty of resisting law
enforcement, a Class A misdemeanor. Cameron appeals, raising one issue for
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our review: whether Cameron committed resisting law enforcement when he
fled a building during the execution of a search warrant and continued to run
despite an officer’s order to stop. Concluding law enforcement had authority to
detain Cameron and that there was sufficient evidence to support his
conviction, we affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
[2] On November 13, 2013, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Miguel Roa
assisted the police vice team in executing a search warrant on a residence in
which the police suspected illegal gambling took place. When police
announced their presence at the front door and entered the residence, Officer
Roa, who was standing along the side of the house, saw several persons run
from the back exit. Cameron was among the individuals who ran out the back
door. Officer Roa chased after Cameron, yelling for him to stop and identifying
himself as a police officer. Officer Roa pursued Cameron the length of two
house lots before Cameron stopped running. Cameron claimed he did not hear
the officer yelling at him to stop.
[3] The State charged Cameron with resisting law enforcement by fleeing, a Class
A misdemeanor, and unlawful gambling, a Class B misdemeanor. Following a
bench trial, the court found Cameron not guilty of unlawful gambling but guilty
of resisting law enforcement. The trial court imposed a one-year sentence, with
two days credit and 363 days suspended to probation. Cameron was also
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ordered to complete forty-eight hours of community service. This appeal
followed.
Discussion and Decision
I. Standard of Review
[4] When reviewing a defendant’s claim of insufficient evidence, the reviewing
court will neither reweigh the evidence nor judge the credibility of the
witnesses, and we must respect the trier of fact’s ability to weigh conflicting
evidence. McHenry v. State, 820 N.E.2d 124, 126 (Ind. 2005). We consider only
the probative evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom supporting the
verdict. Id. And we must affirm “if the probative evidence and reasonable
inferences drawn from the evidence could have allowed a reasonable trier of
fact to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. (citation
omitted).
II. Cameron’s Duty to Stop
[5] A person commits resisting law enforcement by fleeing as a Class A
misdemeanor if he “knowingly or intentionally . . . flees from a law
enforcement officer after the officer has, by visible or audible means, . . .
identified himself or herself and ordered the person to stop.” Ind. Code § 35-
44.1-3-1(a)(3). Cameron argues that the evidence is insufficient to convict him
of resisting law enforcement because he did not have a duty to stop and Officer
Roa did not have authority to detain him.
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[6] Just last year, our supreme court resolved a conflict between Indiana Court of
Appeals’ decisions as to whether an officer’s order to stop must be lawful in
order to sustain a conviction under Indiana’s resisting law enforcement statute.
See generally Gaddie v. State, 10 N.E.3d 1249 (Ind. 2014). The court’s decision in
Gaddie focused on rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, which states
“[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated . . . .”
U.S. Const. amend. IV.
[7] The Fourth Amendment requires that a law enforcement officer must have at
least a minimal level of objective justification for detaining an individual—
namely, reasonable suspicion, if not probable cause. Illinois v. Wardlow, 528
U.S. 119, 123 (2000). “[W]hen an officer, without reasonable suspicion or
probable cause, approaches an individual, the individual has a right to ignore
the police and go about his business.” Id. at 125. With those constitutional
principles in mind, our supreme court reasoned that “[i]f a citizen’s freedom to
walk away is deemed a criminal offense merely because it follows an officer’s
command to halt—even in the absence of probable cause or reasonable
suspicion—then the citizen’s freedom is restrained contrary to the protections of
the Fourth Amendment.” Gaddie, 10 N.E.3d at 1254. Accordingly, the court
held that “[t]o avoid conflict with the Fourth Amendment, Indiana Code
section 35–44.1–3–1(a)(3) . . . must be construed to require that a law
enforcement officer’s order to stop be based on reasonable suspicion or probable
cause.” Id. at 1256.
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[8] Cameron contends that he had no duty to stop when ordered to do so by
Officer Roa. He claims that there was no evidence that he had committed a
crime and that Officer Roa did not have reasonable suspicion to believe that he
was involved in any sort of criminal activity. We disagree. Officer Roa was
aware that the residence being searched was suspected of hosting illegal
gambling activity, and he witnessed Cameron flee from the back door of that
residence at the same moment that police officers announced themselves and
entered to execute a search warrant. We believe that at that moment there were
“specific and articulable facts,” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21 (1968), giving rise
to reasonable suspicion justifying Officer Roa’s order for Cameron to stop.
[9] Even if Officer Roa did not have reasonable suspicion to believe Cameron was
involved in criminal activity, his conviction for resisting law enforcement by
fleeing would still be appropriate under the circumstances. Although Gaddie’s
holding specifically made reference to a requirement for “reasonable suspicion
or probable cause,” it is quite clear that the decision was meant to prevent
convictions that offend Fourth Amendment principles. 10 N.E.3d at 1256.
“[A] warrant to search for contraband founded on probable cause implicitly
carries with it the limited authority to detain the occupants of the premises
while a proper search is conducted.” Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 705
(1981) (footnotes omitted); see also Bailey v. United States, 133 S.Ct.1031, 1037-38
(2013) (“The rule in Summers . . . does not require law enforcement to have
particular suspicion that an individual is involved in criminal activity or poses a
specific danger to the officers.”). Here, Cameron was an occupant of a building
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being subjected to the execution of a valid search warrant. As such, Officer
Roa’s detention of Cameron—with or without particularized reasonable
suspicion—would not run afoul of Fourth Amendment protections. Therefore,
Cameron had a duty to stop when ordered, and there was sufficient evidence to
support his conviction for resisting law enforcement by fleeing.
Conclusion
[10] Concluding law enforcement had authority to detain Cameron during the
execution of a search warrant and that there was sufficient evidence to support
his conviction, we affirm.
[11] Affirmed.
Bailey, J., and Brown, J., concur.
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