SMITH, Vice Presiding Judge.
¶ 1 Angela Marie Marcum, James Michael Miller, and William Harbert Layden Jr. were charged in the District Court of Pittsburg County, Case No. CF-2011-347, with Conspiracy to Defraud the State of Oklahoma in violation of 21 O.S.2001, § 424. All three defendants moved to suppress evidence relating to text messages. After a June 21, 2012 hearing, the Honorable Joe Sam Vassar issued an Order on November 12, 2012, granting the motions of Miller and Marcum and overruling Layden's motion. The State timely appealed that order as to Marcum and Miller under 22 O.S.2011, § 1053(5) in this Court, Case No. S-2012-1005.
¶ 2 Miller was also charged in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Case No. CF-2011-5312, with Perjury (Counts I, II and III) in violation of 21 O.S.2001, § 491. Miller moved to suppress evidence relating to text messages in that case. After an October 26, 2012 hearing, the Honorable Kenneth A. Watson granted Miller's motion to suppress. The State timely appealed that Order under 22 O.S.2011, § 1053(5), in this Court, Case No. S-2012-976. On December 27, 2012, this Court granted the State's motion to consolidate the cases as Case No. S-2012-976. On March 13, 2013, the State moved to dismiss the appeal against Miller. This motion was granted on March 28, 2013. Marcum remains as the only Appellee in the consolidated appeal. The State raises three propositions of error in support of its petition.
¶ 3 Miller was an assistant district attorney in Pittsburg County and Marcum was the drug court coordinator responsible for collecting money. Miller and Marcum were romantically involved. The Pittsburg County District Attorney told Miller that the OSBI was in town investigating suspected embezzlement. Shortly after that conversation, Miller was seen in the alley behind the courthouse, texting quickly. Miller sent Marcum text messages from his personal cell phone, and received text messages from her on his personal phone. In the Pittsburg County Order granting the motion to suppress in part, the trial court describes the messages as "salacious and incriminating." The defendants were accused in a multicounty grand jury indictment of obstructing the investigation of that crime.
¶ 4 The State sought to admit Exhibit 4, records of the U.S. Cellular telephone company of texts to and from Miller's cell phone, which were obtained pursuant to a search warrant. The State neither searched nor obtained records from Miller's actual cellular telephone. The defendants moved before trial to suppress these records. Miller took the lead in making and arguing this motion. He argued that his Fourth Amendment right against search and seizure was violated by seizure of the U.S. Cellular business records concerning Miller's texts. He claimed that the search warrant was invalid because the affidavit supporting it was insufficient. Marcum joined this motion. Judge Vassar found that both Marcum and Miller had a reasonable expectation that their texts would be private, and had standing to urge a motion to
¶ 5 We find regarding Proposition I that a review of the record shows the appeal is proper and review of the issue is in the best interests of justice. 22 O.S.2011, § 1053(5); State v. Pope, 2009 OK CR 9, ¶ 3, 204 P.3d 1285, 1287.
¶ 6 We find in Proposition II that the trial court erred in suppressing the evidence as to Marcum. The defendants in the Pittsburg County case sought to suppress the evidence of text messages by attacking the search warrant. The search warrant was directed, not to any defendant's cell phone, but to the business records of the U.S. Cellular phone company, a corporation, which kept a record of the texts in the regular course of business.
¶ 7 The initial issue below and on appeal is whether Marcum has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the U.S. Cellular records of Miller's phone account. This is not an analysis of standing. Fourth Amendment rights are personal, may not be asserted on behalf of another, and will be enforced only where a search and seizure infringes on a defendant's own rights. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 133-34, 99 S.Ct. 421, 425-26, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). Whether a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights have been violated is analyzed under substantive Fourth Amendment law, not as a question of standing. Minnesota v. Carter, 525 U.S. 83, 87-88, 119 S.Ct. 469, 472, 142 L.Ed.2d 373 (1998); Rakas, 439 U.S. at 139-40, 99 S.Ct. at 428. Marcum must prove she exhibited an actual, subjective expectation of privacy, which society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. Champeau v. State, 1984 OK CR 54, ¶ 11, 678 P.2d 1192, 1195-96; Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). A legitimate expectation of privacy may arise "by reference to concepts of real or personal property law or to understandings that are recognized and permitted by society." United States v. Jones, ___ U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 945, 951, 181 L.Ed.2d 911 (2012), quoting Carter, 525 U.S. at 88, 119 S.Ct. at 472; State v. Bass, 2013 OK CR 7, ¶ 5, 300 P.3d 1193, 1195 (quotation and citation omitted). In finding that Marcum had a privacy interest in the records, Judge Vassar found that Marcum made this showing. We review this decision for an abuse of discretion. Bass, 2013 OK CR 7, ¶ 10, 300 P.3d at 1196. An abuse of discretion is any unreasonable or arbitrary action taken without proper consideration of the facts and law pertaining to the issue; a clearly erroneous conclusion and judgment, clearly against the logic and effect of the facts. Neloms v. State, 2012 OK CR 7, ¶ 35, 274 P.3d 161, 170.
¶ 8 This Court has not previously determined whether there is a Fourth Amendment right to privacy under these circumstances.
¶ 9 The United States Supreme Court has so far refused to explicitly recognize a right to privacy in the content of cell phones. The United States Supreme Court has reviewed the issue of a reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages in a different context, in City of Ontario, Ca. v. Quon, 560 U.S. 746, 130 S.Ct. 2619, 177 L.Ed.2d 216 (2010). There, the City issued employees pagers which sent and received texts. After several months, the City audited the account, asked the wireless provider for transcripts of employees' text messages, discovered some were not work-related, referred the matter to the internal affairs division, and Quon was disciplined. He, and the persons with whom he had exchanged the messages, claimed that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the messages, and that the audit was not reasonable. Quon concerned a government employer auditing equipment provided by the employer for work use, and the decision is based on those grounds. The City had warned employees that it treated the pager text messages as if they were emails on City accounts, and that the messages were eligible for auditing, but a supervisor had told Quon that if he paid for the account overage there would be no need for an audit. The Supreme Court noted that the parties disagreed as to whether Quon, as an employee, had a reasonable expectation of privacy, but chose not to answer that question: "The Court must proceed with care when considering the whole concept of privacy expectations in communications made on electronic equipment owned by a government employer. The judiciary risks error by elaborating too fully on the Fourth Amendment implications of emerging technology before its role in society has become clear." Quon, 560 U.S. at 759, 130 S.Ct. at 2629. The Court further explained:
Quon, 560 U.S. at 759-60, 130 S.Ct. at 2630 (citation omitted). The Court was discussing text messages in the employment context, rather than, as occurred here, text messages connected with a private personal account.
¶ 10 In United States v. Jones, ___ U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 945, 181 L.Ed.2d 911 (2012), the United States Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment was violated when the government installed a GPS tracking device on a target vehicle and used it to monitor the vehicle's movements. The majority opinion was decided on the fact of the government's
Jones, 132 S.Ct. at 957 (Sotomayor, J., concurring) (citations omitted). Concurring in the judgment, Justice Alito would have analyzed the issue exclusively under the Fourth Amendment reasonable expectation of privacy. He noted:
Jones, 132 S.Ct. at 962-63 (Alito, J., concurring in the judgment) (citations and footnote omitted).
¶ 11 Some other jurisdictions have discussed cell phones, smartphones, and text messages. In United States v. Finley, 477 F.3d 250 (5th Cir.2007) the Fifth Circuit held that a defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages on his employer-provided cell phone, and the subsequent warrantless search of the text messages was improper. The Fifth Circuit found that Finley had a possessory interest in the phone, that he took some steps to protect his privacy in the phone, and that while he might have expected his employer to see the messages he might reasonably have expected it to be free from government and public inspection; however, the opinion concluded, the search was permissible as a search incident to arrest. Finley, 477 F.3d at 259-60. Finley does not treat the subject in depth. Several courts have subsequently found a reasonable expectation of privacy in a personal cell phone's contents. See, e.g., United States v. Davis, 787 F.Supp.2d 1165,
¶ 12 In an unpublished case, the U.S. District Court for Kansas discussed the unique privacy concerns raised by smartphones, finding that most users would have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the phones' contents. United States v. Aispuro, 2013 WL 3820017, *14 (D.Kan.2013); see also United States v. McAleese, 2013 WL 3479410, *8 n. 8 (E.D.Pa.2013). The Massachusetts Supreme Court, while allowing cell phones to be searched incident to arrest for a recent call list, distinguished smartphones, noting, "We have wisely not yet ruled whether a more intrusive search of a smartphone, or any other device capable of storing highly personal information, may be conducted as a search incident to arrest, even where the police may have probable cause to believe that evidence of the crime of arrest may be found in the text messages, e-mails, or other data storage areas of the telephone where an individual maintains a reasonable expectation of privacy." Commonwealth v. Phifer, 463 Mass. 790, 979 N.E.2d 210, 217 (2012) (Gants, J., concurring).
¶ 13 In suppressing this evidence against Marcum, Judge Vassar relied on a Missouri district court of appeals case, State v. Clampitt, 364 S.W.3d 605 (Mo.App.W.D.2012). In Clampitt, the prosecutor obtained text message content, for the phone of the account holder himself (not, as here, a person who received and sent messages to the account holder), from a U.S. Cellular account through an investigative subpoena, not a warrant. Clampitt discussed whether a person had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of text messages where the contents were in the possession of a third party, a telephone company. Relying on a Sixth Circuit case discussing email accounts, United States v. Warshak, 631 F.3d 266, 286 (6th Cir.2010), the Missouri court noted that mere third party access to subscribers' accounts did not automatically extinguish a reasonable expectation of privacy. Clampitt, 364 S.W.3d at 611. Judge Vassar quoted this passage with approval:
Clampitt, 364 S.W.3d at 611.
¶ 14 All the cases from other jurisdictions discussed above, including Clampitt, lack an
¶ 15 Addressing only the narrow question before us, Marcum has not demonstrated a reasonable expectation of privacy in the records seized from U.S. Cellular for Miller's phone account. This Court adopts the reasoning of the courts which have concluded that there is no expectation of privacy in the text messages or account records of another person, where the defendant has no possessory interest in the cell phone in question, and particularly where, as here, the actual warrant is directed to a third party. The trial court abused its discretion in finding that Marcum had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the records of text messages sent from and received by Miller's phone, and kept by U.S. Cellular. Neloms, 2012 OK CR 7, ¶ 35, 274 P.3d at 170. This proposition is granted, and the case is reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
¶ 16 Given our resolution of Proposition II, Proposition III is moot. However, we note that, in finding the search warrant invalid, the district court rejected the State's reliance on the good faith exception, stating that this Court had not adopted that exception under these circumstances. This is not correct. This Court recently adopted the good faith exception.
¶ 17 The Pittsburg County District Court's Order sustaining the defendants' motions to suppress in Case No. CF-2011-347 is
LEWIS, P.J., Concur in Result.
LUMPKIN, J., Specially Concur.
C. JOHNSON, A. JOHNSON, JJ, Concur.
LUMPKIN, Judge, Specially Concur.
¶ 1 I concur in the Court's decision and agree there is no expectation of privacy in text messages held by a third party. I write separately to address the issue in Proposition II, of whether Marcum had the legal capacity to claim the protection of the Fourth Amendment. Her "expectation of privacy" is no more than her "standing" to contest the warrant. It is not a trump over the search warrant. As I stated in my separate writing to State v. Bass, 2013 OK CR7, 300 P.3d 1193, while the Supreme Court in Rakas distinguished between the traditional concept of "standing" and the "capacity to claim the protection of the Fourth Amendment", the term "standing" is still used by many courts. See Davis v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2419, 2431, 180 L.Ed.2d 285 (2011); Kentucky v. King, ___ U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 1849, 1854 n. 1, 179 L.Ed.2d 865 (2011); Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 249, 259, 127 S.Ct. 2400, 2408, 168 L.Ed.2d 132 (2007); United States v. Christian, 43 F.3d 527, 530-31 (10th Cir.1994); United States v. Obregon, 748 F.2d 1371, 1374-75 (10th Cir.1984); Marshall v. State, 2010 OK CR 8, ¶ 48, 232 P.3d 467, 478; State v. Howerton, 2002 OK CR 17, ¶ 19, 46 P.3d 154, 158; Anderson v. State, 1999 OK CR 44, ¶ 18, 992 P.2d 409, 417; Munson v. State, 1988 OK CR 124, ¶ 34, 758 P.2d 324, 334.
¶ 2 Regardless of this dichotomy of labels, the bottom line is the courts are to determine the legal capacity of a defendant to challenge an issue based on the analysis of an "expectation of privacy". Once a court determines the legal capacity of a defendant to challenge the evidence at issue, the court can then address the substantive issues relating to the objection to the evidence.
¶ 3 In the present case, even if Marcum had established she had a reasonable expectation of privacy, or standing, to raise an objection to the search and seizure of the business records, she has not shown that the execution of the search warrant and resulting seizure of evidence was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See State v. Sittingdown, 2010 OK CR 22, ¶ 17, 240 P.3d 714, 718 ("[t]he exclusionary rule is not applied when a law enforcement officer has conducted a search in `objectively reasonable reliance' upon a search warrant issued by a magistrate and has abided by the terms of the warrant even if the warrant is subsequently determined to be invalid" citing United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 922, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 3420, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984)).