Court Opinion

ID: 9849619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:43:18.966978+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:20.111140
License: Public Domain

BENTON, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the opinion except for the holding in Part 11(A) that Reittinger was not seized when the officer began his inquiry about drugs and guns.
“[Shopping an automobile and detaining its occupants constitutes a ‘seizure’ within the meaning of [the Fourth Amendment] even though the purpose of the stop is limited and the resulting detention quite brief.” Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 653, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979). The evidence proved that “probably no more than a second or two” after the officer told Reittinger he was “free to go,” the officer asked Reittinger “if he had any drugs or weapons in the vehicle.”
The inquiry concerning the drugs or weapons was an unconstitutional extension of the original traffic stop. Although the reason for the initial stop had ended, the officer continued the detention by making inquiries unrelated to the initial stop. The evidence does not prove whether the officer had returned Reittinger’s vehicle registration when he began the inquiry about the drugs and weapons. Thus, I would uphold the trial judge’s ruling that the officer’s inquiry concerning drugs and guns was so immediate that a reasonable person would not have believed he or she was free to leave. See Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 502, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983). The officer’s immediate transition into the inquiry was so seamless that a reasonable person would not have believed the initial seizure had ended. See id. at 497, 103 S.Ct. 1319.
Therefore, I would hold that the inquiry concerning the drugs and weapons constituted an unlawful seizure under the Fourth Amendment because the officer had completed the equipment investigation and then subjected the defendant to a *97new and unrelated inquiry under circumstances such that a reasonable person would not have believed the initial seizure had ended or that he or she was free to leave.