Title: State v. Barber

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
Court, 111 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 of any errors in order
that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                No. 88-246


State of Vermont                             Supreme Court

                                             On Appeal from
     v.                                      District Court of Vermont
                                             Unit No. 2, Chittenden Circuit

Jeffrey Barber                               April Term, 1990


Alden T. Bryan, J.

William Sorrell, Chittenden County State's Attorney, Burlington, and Gary
  S. Kessler, Resource Attorney, and Allison Hastings, Student Intern,
  State's Attorneys and Sheriffs Department, Montpelier, for plaintiff-
  appellee

Walter M. Morris, Jr., Defender General, and Henry Hinton and William A.
  Nelson, Appellate Defenders, Montpelier, for defendant-appellant


PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Peck, Gibson, Dooley and Morse, JJ.


     DOOLEY, J.  Defendant, Jeffrey Barber, appeals his conviction by the
district court of driving with license suspended in violation of 23 V.S.A. {
674 and of leaving the scene of an accident in violation of 23 V.S.A. {
1128.  We remand for further proceedings.
     On December 3, 1987, the Burlington police received a call from a
Burlington parking meter checker reporting a motor vehicle accident she
observed at the corner of College and Church Streets in Burlington.  A
Burlington police officer responded and learned that two Shelburne police
officers were following one of the vehicles.  The two Shelburne police
officers also witnessed the accident, and when the vehicle driven by
defendant left the scene of the accident without stopping, gave chase in
their unmarked vehicle with the blue lights activated.  During the chase,
defendant ran at least two stop lights before finally stopping at the corner
of Park and Battery Streets.  The Shelburne police went to defendant's
vehicle and ordered him out of it.  The Burlington police officer arrived on
the scene soon after the defendant emerged from the vehicle, and, after
conferring with the Shelburne police officers, arrested him.  Defendant was
charged with driving with a suspended license and leaving the scene of an
accident.
     Defendant moved to dismiss the prosecutions on the ground that he was
stopped and arrested by officers who were outside of their territorial
jurisdiction.  The trial court denied the motion because the formal arrest
was made by the Burlington police officer.  Defendant waived his right to a
jury trial, and the court subsequently found him guilty of both offenses.
     Defendant appeals, claiming that the trial court erred by refusing to
dismiss these prosecutions because the State's evidence was the fruit of an
unlawful motor vehicle stop made by municipal police officers who were
outside their jurisdiction.  Defendant is correct that the Shelburne police
officers were acting beyond their statutory authority when they stopped him
in Burlington.  We have held that local police officers may not detain and
arrest a suspect without a warrant outside of their territorial juris-
dictions unless special circumstances are present. (FN1) State v. LeBlanc, 149
Vt. 141, 142,