Opinion ID: 1448073
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Wyoming Cases:

Text: The sufficiency of probable cause for a search was first discussed by this court in State v. Kelly, 38 Wyo. 455, 268 P. 571 (1928). The search of an automobile for intoxicating liquor was upheld, based initially on a tip from a Hot Springs County deputy sheriff which gave a physical description of the vehicle's passengers (a fat, heavy-set man and a small man) and a partial description of the vehicle. Kelly, 38 Wyo. at 457, 268 P. at 571. The description of the passengers and vehicle was confirmed by a Washakie County sheriff, along with his observations that the men appeared to be agitated and the rear of the vehicle contained small kegs. Kelly, 38 Wyo. at 457, 268 P. at 571. Chief Justice Blume stated for the court: We might not have been satisfied in the instant case to uphold the trial court, if the probable cause had rested solely upon the information given by the Deputy Sheriff to the Sheriff in this case, but that information was strengthened by reason of the other suspicious circumstances in the case, warranting the court, we think, in its holding. Kelly, 38 Wyo. at 460, 268 P. at 572 (emphasis added). In a case involving an improper arrest, we cited Terry, noting that [t]emporary detention for limited investigatory purposes, as well as a full blown arrest, is protected by the Fourth Amendment and inferred that the test of any governmental invasion of a citizen's personal security is its reasonableness in the light of all the surrounding circumstances. Rodarte v. City of Riverton, 552 P.2d 1245, 1251, n. 2 (Wyo.1976). This court first discussed a permissible stop and frisk in Parkhurst v. State, 628 P.2d 1369 (Wyo.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 899, 102 S.Ct. 402, 70 L.Ed.2d 216. In that case, two suspects were stopped in their vehicle shortly after a murder had taken place. At the time of the stop, the police knew the identity of the assailants from the victim, a description of the suspects' car, and the direction and road they were travelling. The vehicle was described as a 1968 blue or green Ford Fairlane, but the car stopped by the police was a mid-60's blue Dodge. The driver was asked to produce his license which identified him as one of the assailants and was then asked to step out of the car, as was his brother who was also identified. The court concluded that the police officers' conduct in making an investigative detention was reasonable since the record discloses ample grounds for their suspicions concerning appellants. Parkhurst, 628 P.2d at 1376. In Cook v. State, 631 P.2d 5 (Wyo.1981), the suspect was stopped under the following scenario: it was after 1:00 a.m. and an armed robbery had just taken place; a van carrying the defendant was stopped within one-half mile of the robbery as it was coming from a private area where it had no business being; and the van's passenger was noted to have hair length matching the description of the robber given by an eyewitness to the robbery. These specific and articulable facts coupled with reasonable inferences by an experienced police officer, furnished ample grounds for finding a reasonable and objective basis for an investigatory stop of the van. Cook, 631 P.2d at 8. In Lopez v. State, 643 P.2d 682 (Wyo. 1982), this court reiterated the test developed in United States v. Cortez: The idea that an assessment of the whole picture must yield a particularized suspicion contains two elements, each of which must be present before a stop is permissible. First, the assessment must be based upon all of the circumstances. The analysis proceeds with various objective observations, information from police reports, if such are available   . From these data, a trained officer draws inferences and makes deductions  inferences and deductions that might well elude an untrained person. The process does not deal with hard certainties, but with probabilities. Long before the law of probabilities was articulated as such, practical people formulated certain common sense conclusions about human behavior; jurors as factfinders are permitted to do the same  and so are law enforcement officers. Finally, the evidence thus collected must be seen and weighed not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement. The second element contained in the idea that assessment of the whole picture must yield a particularized suspicion is the concept that the process just described must raise a suspicion that the particular individual being stopped is engaged in wrongdoing. Lopez, 643 P.2d at 683-84 (quoting Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 418, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621, 629 (1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 923, 102 S.Ct. 1281, 71 L.Ed.2d 464). This court said that probable cause need not exist before an investigatory stop is made but that based upon the totality of the circumstances, the detaining officer must have a particular and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity. Lopez, 643 P.2d at 683 (citation omitted). In Lopez, the suspect was described as a small, thin Mexican male wearing an orange T-shirt and some sort of wishbone design on the T-shirt and driving towards Sheridan in a tannish-colored older car, with no license plates and a Casper dealer's tag on the rear end. Lopez, 643 P.2d at 683. The court upheld the stop of Lopez based on this particularized description of the vehicle and suspect from an eyewitness. In a case involving a stop of a suspected drunk driver, this court discussed opinions in other jurisdictions that held reports from citizen informants as presumptively reliable if they also contain enough objective facts to justify pursuit and detention. Olson v. State, 698 P.2d 107, 110 (Wyo.1985). This court, however, determined that it need not reach the issue of whether the truck drivers' reports of the drunk driver's erratic driving was sufficient in itself because the police officer who then followed the suspect observed him exceed the speed limit, weave slightly and hug the exit ramp. Olson, 698 P.2d at 111.