Court Opinion

ID: 9752240
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 17:51:01.021946+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:11.306165
License: Public Domain

WAGNER, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
Assuming the validity of the investigatory stop under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), I cannot agree that the search and retrieval of the chapstick from Marino was justified under Terry principles. Police are not at liberty to conduct a search of a citizen for contraband every time they make an investigatory stop. Id. at 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868; see Upshur v. United States, 716 A.2d 981, 983 (D.C.1998). “Before [a police officer] *133places his hand on the person of a citizen in search of anything, he must have constitutionally adequate, reasonable grounds for doing so.” Upshur, 716 A.2d at 984. The police did not have such grounds in this case. Here, the officer grabbed Mari-no and moved him back to search under his foot in order to recover the chapstick which he suspected might contain drugs. This was simply a stop and search for drugs. In my view, this was an inadequate basis for a seizure under Terry. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 29, 88 S.Ct. 1868; Upshur, 716 A.2d at 983-84. Therefore, I respectfully dissent from the opinion of the court.