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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS


PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v JOHN F. BRZEZINSKI, Defendant-Appellee.

FOR PUBLICATION December 1, 2000 9:10 a.m. No. 225395 Menominee Circuit Court LC No. 99-002460-FH Updated Copy January 19, 2001

Before: Gribbs, P.J., and Kelly and Hoekstra, JJ. KELLY, J. The prosecutor appeals by leave granted the trial court's order granting defendant's motion to suppress physical evidence discovered during a search of the defendant. We vacate the order and for further proceedings. Defendant moved to suppress evidence found by state troopers when they searched him after they found him unconscious in the back seat of a vehicle near the scene of a suspicious fire. Defendant matched the description of a man seen leaving the scene of the fire who seemed to be disoriented and injured. The prosecutor argued that although the search had been done without a warrant, it fell under the "emergency aid" exception to the warrant requirement because defendant was not responding to the troopers' attempts to rouse him and that their search for defendant's identification was necessary to help them in rendering medical assistance to defendant.

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A lower court's factual findings in a suppression hearing are reviewed for clear error and will be affirmed unless the reviewing court has a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made. People v Cheatham, 453 Mich 1, 29-30, 44; 551 NW2d 355 (1996). The right against unreasonable searches and seizures is guaranteed by both the state and federal constitutions. US Const, Am IV; Const 1963, art 1,

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