Opinion ID: 1595327
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: stop of vehicle

Text: Dallmann contends that the officers stopped his vehicle in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and article I, § 7, of the Nebraska Constitution. Dallmann contends that the investigators had decided, without probable cause, to follow and stop him before he left the convenience store and that the stop based on his failure to turn on his headlights was a pretext to obtain consent to search the vehicle. This contention is without merit. In Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996), the Court addressed the argument that a stop made pursuant to a traffic violation was actually a pretext for a search. The Court made clear that the standard to be applied is whether the officers had probable cause to stop the vehicle and that the constitutional reasonableness of a traffic stop does not depend on the actual motivations of the officers involved. The Court further explained that prior cases involving a pretext to search were cases in which the Court was addressing the validity of a search in the absence of probable cause. Based in part on Whren, supra, we recently held that a traffic violation, no matter how minor, creates probable cause to stop the driver of a vehicle. State v. Bartholomew, 258 Neb. 174, 602 N.W.2d 510 (1999). If an officer has probable cause to stop a violator, the stop is objectively reasonable, and any ulterior motivation on the officer's part is irrelevant. Id. The officers in this case stopped Dallmann because he was driving at night without headlights. Whether the officers would have had probable cause to stop Dallmann if he had not violated a traffic regulation is irrelevant. Thus, the district court was correct in concluding that the officers had probable cause to stop Dallmann's vehicle.