Court Opinion

ID: 9836951
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 03:15:39.666595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:19.514365
License: Public Domain

GIERKE, Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that appellant’s apprehension for disrespect was not tainted by an unlawful Terry stop. I write separately to disassociate myself from the suggestion in the majority opinion that appellant’s detention may have been racially motivated. See 51 MJ at 428 (“We further note that race alone does not amount to ‘reasonable suspicion’ to justify a Terry stop.”); 51 MJ at 429 (“while there may have been some evidence suggesting improper racial consideration ....”).
In my view, appellant and the others were stopped because the suspect was described as a black male and he was one of several black males who were in the place where the suspects were expected to be found. The brief detention of several potential suspects falls within the rationale of United States v. Miller, 48 MJ 49, 54 (1998), where this Court said it was permissible to detain a potential suspect “for the purpose of ascertaining his identity and briefly questioning him about his whereabouts.”