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State v.Mark Hider
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MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT				Reporter of Decisions
Decision:		1998 ME 203
Docket:		Cum-96-591
Argued:		February 2, 1998
Decided :		August 5, 1998

Panel:	WATHEN, C.J., and  ROBERTS, CLIFFORD, RUDMAN and DANA, JJ.

STATE OF MAINE

v.

MARK HIDER

CLIFFORD, J.

	[¶1]  Mark Hider appeals from a judgment entered in the Superior
Court (Cumberland, Cole, J.)  following a jury trial in which he was found
guilty of trafficking in schedule Z drugs (Class C) in violation of 17-A M.R.S.A
§ 1103 (Supp. 1997).{1}  Hider contends that the Superior Court erred in
admitting illegally obtained evidence, denied his right to a speedy trial,
subjected him to double jeopardy, impermissibly refused to allow him to
question prosecution witnesses about his dispute with the Portland Police
Department, and admitted unfairly prejudicial evidence.  He also alleges the
evidence was not sufficient.  We affirm the judgment.
	[¶2]  Testimony from Hider's second trial,{2} from which this appeal is
taken, provides the following facts.  In September 1992, a Portland police
officer was tracking a robbery suspect through fields and woods with a
trained canine.  The dog, trained in narcotics identification, indicated the
presence of narcotics in the area.  The officer then saw thirty to forty
marijuana plants six to ten feet in height, partially surrounded by flower and
vegetable gardens.  From the garden area he noted two buildings
approximately sixty to ninety feet away.  He broke off a leaf from one of the
plants that was later identified as marijuana.  Based on this discovery, a
warrant was obtained to search a residential house and karate studio located
at 70 Cobb Avenue.  While the warrant was being prepared, the officers
learned that Hider, who appeared to be the owner of the premises to be
searched,{3} was involved in a lawsuit involving a concealed weapons permit
and was known to possess a large quantity of weapons.{4}
	[¶3]  A Special Entry (or "SWAT") team made a forcible,
unannounced entry into the karate studio, then searched the residence and
studio.  In the house, officers discovered marijuana in the room of Hider's
son who resided in the house with his mother, Hider's former wife.
Marijuana pipes, seeds and residue were also discovered elsewhere in the
house.  Officers dug up and seized the 44 marijuana plants, which when
dried totalled 6.5 pounds with a street value of between $1200 to $1700 per
pound.  Hider's son provided conflicting reports, initially telling police that
the plants were his father's.  At trial, however, he testified that he planted
and raised the marijuana and that his father was not involved.  Hider was
present during the search of the studio, where officers found a scale of the
type typically used to weigh marijuana or cocaine, empty packages of rolling
papers, what appeared to police to be a running balance sheet of drug sales,
and a silver case containing marijuana residue.  Hider was convicted of
trafficking in schedule Z drugs.{5}
	[¶4]  Upon remand of the case after we vacated Hider's first
conviction,{6} Hider was re-indicted by the Cumberland County Grand Jury on
January 6, 1995, for aggravated trafficking (Class B) in violation of 17-A
M.R.S.A § 1105 (1983 & Supp. 1997).  An additional allegation that Hider
possessed firearms at the time of the alleged trafficking made the charge a
Class B offense.  Pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. § 1252(5-A)(A), the new charge
carried a minimum two-year sentence of incarceration that could not be
suspended.
	[¶5]  Following an unsuccessful motion by the State to join the new
indictment with the original case, and a motion by Hider alleging that the
prosecution was vindictive, the State dismissed the prior indictment and
moved to amend the new indictment to eliminate any reference to firearms,
reverting back to the same Class C felony offense charged in the original
1992 indictment.
	[¶6]  The court held a hearing on a new motion to suppress all
evidence obtained both as a result of the initial entry onto the property and
of the search pursuant to the warrant, essentially the same motion as that
filed prior to the first trial.  Relying on the transcript of the May 6, 1993
hearing on the motion to suppress held prior to the first trial, the court
(Fritzsche, J.). denied the motion.
	[¶7]  On March 28, 1996 Hider filed a pro se motion alleging
deprivation of a right to a speedy trial.  The court denied the motion on
April 28, 1996, and ordered the case to be set on the next trial list. 
Following a second motion to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial on August 19,
1996, the trial took place on August 22, 1996.  The jury returned a guilty
verdict, and Hider was sentenced to a nine-month term of imprisonment
with all but 90 days suspended.  This appeal followed.

I.

A.

	[¶8]  Hider challenges the denial of his motion to suppress.  As to
part of his basis for filing his motion to suppress, he is collaterally estopped. 
Our decision in Hider I,{7} precludes his challenge to the officer's inadvertent
entry into the marijuana patch.  We have held that "[i]n a separate
proceeding between the same parties, collateral estoppel bars relitigation of
issues that were actually litigated in the first proceeding."  State v. Moulton,
481 A.2d 155, 161-62 (Me. 1984)  (original order on suppression motion
was not invalidated by re-indictment on more serious charges since
defendant had "every incentive to litigate" at the first hearing "fully and
vigorously") (quoting Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 27 (1982)). 
Defendants have frequently been precluded from re-litigating denials of
motions to suppress.  See Richard B. Kennelly, Jr., Precluding the Accused:
Offensive Collateral Estoppel in Criminal Cases, 80 Vir. L. Rev. 1379, 1386
(1994) ("[I]nvoking collateral estoppel against the accused is more easily
justified regarding suppression motions than regarding a substantive
element of the offense.").   Whether collateral estoppel would be fair and
appropriate has been analyzed, in the context of a suppression hearing, as
follows:

First, there obviously must be an identity of issues in the two
proceedings.  Second, a defendant must have had sufficient
incentive to have vigorously and thoroughly litigated the issue in
previous proceedings . . . . Third, the defendant estopped must
have been a party to the previous litigation.  Fourth, the
applicable law must be identical in both proceedings. . . .  Fifth
and finally, the first proceeding must result in a final judgment
on the merits that provides the defendant not only the
opportunity to appeal, but also sufficient incentive. 

Id. at 1385 (citing United States v. Levasseur, 699 F. Supp. 965 (D. Mass.
1988), rev'd on other grounds, 846 F.2d 786 (1st Cir. 1988)).{8}  Hider
vigorously litigated the identical motion to suppress based on the officer's
initial entry onto the land and his discovery of the marijuana patch prior to
his first trial.  The law relating to such an entry was the same then as it is
now, and the case ended in a judgment on the merits that allowed Hider the
opportunity and incentive to litigate the issue on appeal.  Collateral estoppel
precludes relitigation of the same initial entry issue.

B.

	[¶9]  Because the law applicable to the forced entry into Hider's
karate studio, however, has changed, Hider is not estopped from
challenging that entry anew.  In Hider I we rejected Hider's challenge to the
unannounced entry into his studio, holding that there is no "knock and
announce" requirement in Maine and "no prohibition against forcible entry
if the circumstances warrant it."  Hider I, 649 A.2d at 15.  Following that
decision and prior to the second trial, the United States Supreme Court
decided Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927, 115 S.Ct. 1914 (1995).  The court
in Wilson held that the common law "knock and announce" principle forms
a part of the Fourth Amendment reasonableness inquiry.  See Wilson, 514
U.S. 927, 115 S.Ct. at 1916.  Because Hider's conviction was vacated, and
thus not final, the Wilson decision has retroactive effect, and the police
conduct must be evaluated pursuant to the new standard.  See Thompson v.
State, 625 A.2d 299, 300 (Me. 1993) (new constitutional rules of criminal
procedure will not be applicable to those cases which have become final
before the new rules are announced); see also State v. Bouchles, 457 A.2d
798, 801 (Me. 1983) (modifications of search and seizure rules are applied
to pending cases).
	[¶10]  In Wilson, the Court left to state courts the task of determining
the circumstances under which an unannounced entry is reasonable under
the Fourth Amendment.{9}  See 514 U.S. 927, 115 S. Ct. at 1918-19 ("We
simply hold that although a search or seizure of a dwelling might be
constitutionally defective if police officers enter without prior
announcement, law enforcement interests may also establish the
reasonableness of an unannounced entry.") (Emphasis added).
	[¶11]  Although at trial the State elicited convincing evidence of the
police officers' awareness that a large quantity of weapons were likely to be
found in the search, thus providing a justification for the unannounced
entry, see Richards v. Wisconsin, __ U.S. __, 117 S. Ct. 1416, 1421-22
(1994) (when no-knock entry is challenged, police must have reasonable
suspicion that knocking and announcing presence would be dangerous or
futile or inhibit effective investigation of crime), the State's showing at the
suppression hearings prior to both trials was minimal.  At the suppression
hearing prior to the first trial, the State provided the trial court with an
attested copy of the warrant, the affidavit, and the inventory.  The affidavit
contained a paragraph stating that firearms were being concealed on the
property, but the affiant's basis for that belief was merely that through his
experience and training it was not uncommon for many of those involved in
illegal trafficking to possess firearms.  At the second suppression hearing
prior to the second trial, the State relied entirely on the transcript of the
first suppression hearing.  
	[¶12] The court's denial of the motion to suppress was based on a
general observation that those who deal in drugs often dispose of them
quickly and "are prepared to use the guns against the police if the police
were to announce their presence first."  The court concluded that when the
warrant permits police to look for drugs and weapons, "they may have to be
given greater freedom and discretion."  Additional evidence of the basis for
the officers' unannounced entry into the karate studio was not produced by
the State until the trial, when officers testified that they learned before the
execution of the search warrant that Hider was known to have a "large
amount of weapons."
	[¶13]  Although the State may not have justified the unannounced
entry with the evidence it presented at the suppression hearing,
nevertheless, we are convinced that the motion to suppress was properly
denied.  First, the entry was made not into a residence, but into Hider's
karate studio.  See United States v. Francis, 646 F.2d 251, 258 (6th Cir.
1981)  (Of three interests served by the rule against unannounced
entry -- preventing violence, preventing the destruction of property, and
protecting privacy -- courts have shown the most concern for protecting
individual privacy.  Much less of a privacy interest in business premises than
exists in a private home.) (citations omitted); see also U.S. v. Conley, 92 F.3d
157, 170-71 (3d Cir. 1996) (noting distinction between entry into a
residential and a commercial building); State v. Boilard, 488 A.2d 1380,
1383-85 (Me. 1985).  Second, at the time they entered Hider's studio, the
officers were in fact very aware that Hider was known to possess firearms.  
	[¶14]  Because the officers were indeed well aware of Hider's
possession of numerous firearms at the time of the unannounced entry, and
the entry was made into Hider's place of business, his studio, and not into a
residence, we will not disturb the trial court's denial of the motion to
suppress.

II.

	[¶15]  Hider also contends that because his second trial was held
nineteen-and-a-half months following his re-indictment and twenty-two
months after his first conviction was vacated, he was denied a speedy trial as
guaranteed by the federal and state constitutions.{10}
	[¶16]  A person accused of a crime is entitled to a discharge or
dismissal if his right to a speedy trial is violated.  State v. Couture, 156 Me.
231, 244; 163 A.2d 646, 655 (1960).  Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 530,
92 S. Ct. 2182, 2192 (1972), sets forth the factors to be considered in
alleged speedy trial violations.  These factors include: (1) the length of the
delay; (2) the reason for the delay; (3) the defendant's assertion of his right;
and (4) the resulting prejudice to the defendant.  See State v. Connors,
679 A.2d 1072, 1075 (Me. 1996) .
	[¶17]  First, the twenty-two month delay in Hider's case does not
establish a per se violation of his right to a speedy trial, but it is enough to
raise a presumption that such delay was not necessary.{11}  See State v. Rippy,
626 A.2d 334, 339 (Me. 1993) (nineteen-month delay was enough to raise
presumption that such delay was unnecessary); State v. Michaud,
590 A.2d 538, 540 (Me. 1991) (thirty-two month delay not per se violation).
	[¶18]  Second, we have been reluctant to find violations of the right
to a speedy trial unless the delay is solely attributable to the State's conduct,
or the State acts in bad faith.  See State v. Willoughby, 507 A.2d 1060, 1066
(Me. 1986) (time consumed by prosecution's interlocutory appeal was not
chargeable against the State even though the outcome was unfavorable to the
State); State v. Lewis, 373 A.2d 603, 609 (Me. 1977) (no violation when
substantial part of the six-month delay was "attributable to either the
appellant's own actions or to circumstances beyond the control of the
prosecution").  In this case both the State and Hider contributed to the
delay.{12}  See Rippy, 626 A.2d at 334 (nineteen-month post-indictment delay
did not violate defendant's constitutional right to speedy trial where it could
be attributed to fault of both parties).
	[¶19]  Third, Hider was late in asserting his right to a speedy trial,
bringing his motions less than five months prior to trial, and again just
before his trial commenced.  See State v. Carisio, 552 A.2d 23, 26 (Me.
1988) (defendant "did not assert her right to a speedy trial . . . until five
months before the trial, making less credible her claim that any delay was
undue or any prejudice substantial.").
	[¶20] Fourth, we evaluate Hider's claim of prejudice "in light of the
three interests that the constitutional right to a speedy trial is designed to
protect:  1) to prevent undue and oppressive incarceration prior to trial;  2)
to minimize anxiety and concern to the accused accompanying public
accusation; and 3) to limit the possibility the defense will be impaired." 
State v. Beauchene, 541 A.2d 914, 919 (Me. 1988) (citations omitted).  The
most important of those interests is the last.  See State v. Steeves, 383 A.2d
1379, 1384 (Me. 1978).  Hider has been subjected to no incarceration,
having been free on bail during the entire period of time, and he has
presented no specific evidence as to his anxiety and concern over the public
accusation.  Beauchene, 541 A.2d at 919.
	[¶21]  Nor has Hider pointed to any evidence to demonstrate that the
dimming of witnesses' memories impaired his defense.  Hider called no
witnesses at either of his trials, and any impairment to his defense appears
to be theoretical only.  See State v. Joubert, 603 A.2d 861, 865 (Me. 1992)
(alleged lost testimony speculative in nature); State v. Cadman, 476 A.2d
1148, 1152 (Me. 1984) (fact that defendant could point to no witnesses that
had disappeared or any evidence that was lost weighed heavily against
him).{13}  Hider was not denied his right to a speedy trial.

III.

	[¶22]  Hider argues that he was twice punished: first by forfeiture of
his weapons, and then by a criminal trial arising out of the same conduct. 
The double jeopardy clauses of the state and federal constitutions prohibit
multiple punishments for the same offense.  See State v. Millett, 669 A.2d
754, 755 (Me. 1996).  The protection under each are coextensive.  See
State v. Wilson, 671 A.2d 958, 960 (Me. 1996).  Whether a criminal
prosecution violates double jeopardy is a question of law.  See State v.
O'Connor, 681 A.2d 475, 476 (Me. 1996).  We have already addressed and
rejected the identical double jeopardy argument, based on the identical
statute.  In State v. George, 1997 ME 2, ¶ 6, 687 A.2d 958, 959, we
concluded, consistent with the opinion of the United States Supreme Court
in U.S. v. Userey, ___ U.S. ___, 116 S.Ct. 2135,  135 L.Ed. 549 (1996),
"that a civil forfeiture proceeding is remedial, not punitive and, therefore,
jeopardy does not attach during such a [civil] proceeding."  George, 1997
ME 2 at ¶ 6, 687 A.2d at 959, (quoting United States v. Userey).  Hider's
double jeopardy contention is without merit.

IV.

	[¶23]  Hider next contends that the court erroneously refused to
allow him to question State witnesses about his then pending legal dispute
with the Portland Police Department{14} that would have established the
State's bias and motive for charging only him, when others were more
closely connected to the property and the marijuana.  We disagree.
	[¶24]  Although a defendant's constitutional right to confront and
cross-examine the witness against him significantly circumscribes the
court's discretion to exclude evidence, see State v. Cloutier, 1997 ME 96,
¶ 5, 695 A.2d 550, 552, that constitutional right to confront and impeach
the witnesses does not guarantee unrestricted admission of all evidence of
an impeaching nature.  See State v. Larrabee, 377 A.2d 463, 467. (Me. 1977) 
In this case, Hider does not contend that testimony of the Portland police
officers was affected by bias.  Rather he points to the decision to charge him
with criminal conduct, a decision that rests with the District Attorney, and
not with the Portland Police Department.  The exclusion of evidence of
Hider's dispute with the Portland Police Department was within the Court's
discretion.   M.R. Evid. 403 (evidence may be excluded if probative value is
substantially outweighed by the danger of confusion of the issues, undue
delay, or waste of time).

V.

	[¶25]  Finally, Hider contends that the court erred by admitting the
evidence seized in the karate studio, that included a scale of the type
typically used to weigh marijuana or cocaine, empty packages of rolling
papers, what appeared to police to be a running balance sheet of drug sales,
and a silver case containing marijuana residue, and that the evidence was
insufficient to support his conviction.  Both contentions are without merit.
	The entry is:
			Judgment affirmed.
                                                                     
Attorneys for State:
Andrew Ketterer, Attorney General
Donald W. Macomber, Asst. Atty. Gen., (orally)
James M. Cameron, Asst. Atty. Gen.
Lea-Anne Jameson, Asst. Atty. Gen.
6 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0006

Attorney for defendant:

Peter W. Evans, Esq.
70 Deering Street
Portland, ME 04101