Court Opinion

ID: 9572916
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:45:44.689813+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:34:38.537098
License: Public Domain

Judge Becton
dissenting:
My reading of the record in this case and the relevant case law requires that I dissent. The court’s holding that Officer Galliher’s warrantless stop of the defendant was based on a constitutionally sufficient and reasonable suspicion that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity is speculative at best and violative of the defendant’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights at the very least. In order to conduct an investigatory stop and detention of an individual, the United States Supreme Court has held that a police officer must have a reasonable suspicion, grounded in articulable and objective facts, that the individual is engaged in criminal activity. Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 47, 61 L. Ed. 2d 357, 99 S. Ct. 2637 (1979). See also State v. Thompson, 296 N.C. 703, 252 S.E. 2d 776, cert. denied, 444 U.S. 907, 62 L. Ed. 2d 143, 100 S. Ct. 220 (1979); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 88 S. Ct. 1868 (1968); State v. Streeter, 283 N.C. 203, 195 S.E. 2d 502 (1973). In Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 59 L. Ed. 2d 660, 99 S. Ct. 1391 (1979), the Court applied the same principle to police stops of motor vehicles citing with approval the Delaware Supreme Court’s opinion that:
a random stop of a motorist in the absence of specific articulable facts which justify the stop by indicating a reasonable suspicion that a violation of the law has occurred is constitutionally impermissible and violative of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
*600440 U.S. at 651, 59 L. Ed. 2d at 665-66, 99 S. Ct. at 1394.
I find no evidence in the record to support the majority’s holding that Officer Galliher had a reasonable suspicion, prior to stopping the defendant’s car, that the defendant was engaged in criminal activity. During direct examination by the State on voir dire, Officer Galliher testified to the contrary, strongly suggesting that he had no suspicions: “I followed the 1970 Oldsmobile and stopped it because I wanted to advise the driver that the cloth was in fact hanging out of the trunk.” Later on cross examination by defense counsel, Galliher added further, “My purpose in following him, was to inform the operator that he had something hanging out of his trunk and that was my only purpose. I was not stopping the vehicle for any traffic violations. I was just going to perform a public service.” (Emphasis added.)
The facts relied on by the majority to support finding a reasonable suspicion were that Officer Galliher observed a car with its trunk lid tied down over what appeared to be a washing machine; that a piece of cloth was hanging out of the car’s trunk over its bumper; that it was 12:34 a.m. at night; and that Officer Galliher had personal knowledge of thefts from nearby Connor Mobile Homes at various, but unspecified, times in the past. Galliher also testified, however, that the defendant was operating his car properly and was not violating any traffic laws. He further stated that it was not unusual for people to be travel-ling in and around Albemarle at that time of night: “it’s quite congested between the hours of 12 and 1 a.m. due to mill traffic. It is not unusual for traffic to be in that area at this time in the morning.” Moreover, nowhere in the record is there any evidence that the thefts from Connor Mobile Homes known about by Officer Galliher were recent thefts, or ones involving a car like the defendant’s car, or even ones involving individuals that fit the defendant’s general description. At best then, the only truly unusual thing about the defendant or his car that night was that a piece of cloth was hanging out of his trunk over his bumper. In light of the officer’s complete testimony on voir dire, the facts relied upon by the majority are so commonplace and innocuous that I cannot see how they support a suspicion on the part of the police that the defendant was engaged in any criminal activity.
*601The facts in this case are distinguishable from the recent North Carolina Supreme Court decision in State v. Thompson, supra. In Thompson, the court found that the police officer’s suspicion that criminal activity was taking place was reasonable and based on specific facts that would give rise to such a suspicion. The facts relied upon were that a van was seen late at night parked in the parking lot of a public boat landing at a time when the lot was not generally in use; that the police had earlier that same evening heard reports of house break-ins in that particular area and that the break-ins were conducted by individuals using a van. Under these circumstances, the police were found to be justified in making an investigatory stop, detention and inquiry of the defendants. But see 296 N.C. at 708-10, 252 S.E. 2d at 780-81 (J. Exum dissenting).
In the case at bar, however, the defendant was stopped and detained at a time and place in which it was not unusual for the defendant to be travelling. Officer Galliher had no information at the time of the stop that a break-in at Connor Mobile Homes had occurred, nor was he on alert for a particular car or suspects fitting the description of the defendant. In short, the type and quality of evidence available to the police in Thompson giving rise to a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity might be taking place, was unquestionably absent in the case before us.
Officer Galliher’s stop of the defendant, then, was not based on a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. Even if the stop was permissible as a safety stop for the purpose of warning the defendant about the cloth hanging from his trunk, the officer, absent probable cause to detain the defendant, should have made his public safety warning to the defendant as he did, and then let the defendant leave. It was wholly improper for Officer Galliher to ask for the defendant’s driver’s license. He testified that, “I asked Mr. Douglas for his North Carolina operator’s license, because I wanted to insure he, in fact, had an operator’s license and to establish his identity.” In Delaware v. Prouse, supra, the United States Supreme Court specifically held that a police officer without probable cause cannot randomly stop a car and detain its driver in order to check his license and registration; such a stop and inquiry is violative of the Fourth Amendment and is an unreasonable seizure. 440 *602U.S. 648, 59 L. Ed. 2d 660, 99 S. Ct. 1391. See also United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1116, 96 S. Ct. 3074 (1976); United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 45 L. Ed. 2d 607, 95 S. Ct. 2574 (1975). Under the circumstances then, it makes no difference that Officer Galliher learned of the Connor Mobile Homes break-in while still awaiting the license check on the defendant. At the time, the defendant had already been subjected to an unreasonable stop and detention in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.
For the Fourth Amendment to have any vitality at all, it must be read and enforced to assure private citizens that their rights and expectations of privacy will not be infringed upon by the State based on less than reasonable suspicions of the police officer in the field, however well intending. Freedom to move about in an unrestricted fashion without fear of unreasonable stops and detentions is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. It is in deference to these higher principles that I dissent and would order the suppression of the illegally obtained evidence in question.