Opinion ID: 1930187
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Objective Reasonableness of the Officer's Suspicion

Text: We can find no clear error in the District Court's finding that Officer Short's suspicion was objectively reasonable. The court correctly distinguished the case at bar from State v. Caron, 534 A.2d 978 (Me.1987). In Caron we held an officer's suspicion of operation under the influence not to be objectively reasonable because he had observed Caron's car straddling the center line only once and for only a short distance. The present facts are much closer to those in State v. Pelletier, 541 A.2d 1296 (1988). There we upheld a finding of reasonableness of the officer's suspicion of intoxication on the basis of his seeing the defendant's car crossing over the center line three times and drifting onto the shoulder once. That the present defendant did not actually cross the center line is irrelevant; we did not in Caron and Pelletier, nor do we now, announce any mechanical standard by which to review a court's finding of reasonableness. We defer to the factfinder's determination unless it is clearly erroneous in all of the circumstances. The court's determination in the case at bar survives that deferential test. The entry is: Judgment affirmed. All concurring.