Court Opinion

ID: 9519002
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:07:05.789126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:40:42.507409
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting). I dissent. If ever a fact pattern came within the boundaries of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), it is this case. If ever police officers had the right (if not the obligation) to stop and frisk a person, it was here, armed as they were with specific information as to name, place, and particulars of the location of the drugs (“left pants pocket”). One police officer, the judge found, had known Borges for many years. In Terry, supra at 5-6, it should be recalled, the detective was not acquainted with either man suspected of *799planning a robbery and the detective had received no information about them. The Court in Terry acknowledged the “seizure” of the men whose suspicious conduct the detective had observed and insisted that the test was one of reasonableness. Terry v. Ohio, supra at 19, 30-31. For some reason which the opinion has failed to disclose, the court today decides that it was unreasonable for the officers to require the defendant to remove his shoes to prevent his escape. Would it have been “more reasonable” to keep a gun pointed at his head to prevent his escape?
This is but another example of the extent to which the exclusionary rule has led to a travesty of good order and common sense.