Court Opinion

ID: 9884056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:32:54.807387+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:34.696473
License: Public Domain

FOLEY, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent and cite People v. Ingle 36 N.Y.2d 413, 330 N.E.2d 39, 369 N.Y.S.2d 67 (1975). In Marben v. State, Department of Public Safety, 294 N.W.2d 697 (Minn.1980), the Minnesota Supreme Court quoted from Ingle as follows:
It should be emphasized that the factual basis required to support a stop for a “routine traffic check” is minimal. An actual violation of the Vehicle and Traffic Law need not be detectable. For example, an automobile in a general state of dilapidation might properly arouse suspicion of equipment violations. All that is required is that the stop be not the product of mere whim, caprice, or idle curiosity. It is enough if the stop is based upon “specific and articula-ble facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant [the] intrusion.” (Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, supra.)
Marben, 294 N.W.2d at 699 (emphasis supplied) (quoting Ingle, 36 N.Y.2d at 420, 330 N.E.2d at 44, 369 N.Y.S.2d at 74).
The Minnesota Supreme Court has consistently applied and quoted the standard adopted by the New York court in Ingle. See, e.g., State v. Engholm, 290 N.W.2d 780, 783 (Minn.1980); State v. Johnson, 257 N.W.2d 308, 309 (Minn.1977); State v. McKinley, 305 Minn. 297, 303-04, 232 N.W.2d 906, 911 (1975). More recently, Ingle was cited with approval in State v. Menard, 341 N.W.2d 888, 891 (Minn.Ct. App.1984), and in Frank v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 384 N.W.2d 574, 576 (Minn.Ct.App.1986). To reiterate, the significant portion of the standard from Ingle is: “All that is required is that the stop be not the product of mere whim, caprice, or idle curiosity.” Id., 36 N.Y.2d at 420, 330 N.E.2d at 44, 369 N.Y.S.2d at 74. The majority does not cite Ingle.
The facts as found by the majority are as follows:
Officer James Dahl of the Minnetonka Police Department was on duty the morning of December 21, 1985, when he began observing respondent Linda Holstein’s vehicle driving southward on County Road 18. At trial, Dahl testified that while he was observing respondent’s car, it drifted towards the side of the road and then pulled back onto a straight course in the traffic lane. He testified that the vehicle drifted towards the fog line but did not cross the fog line.
Approximately two miles beyond this first incident observed by Dahl, the vehicle drifted towards an exit ramp and then pulled abruptly back and continued south. Dahl then caused respondent’s vehicle to pull over.
Applying the Ingle test, the officer had an articulable basis for stopping the subject vehicle. The case should be reviewed through the eyes of the officer making the stop. Johnson v. Commissioner of Public Safety, 388 N.W.2d 759 (Minn.Ct.App. 1986). The trial court should be reversed and revocation ordered. Another hearing is not required, even though the trial court applied the erroneous higher standard of probable cause to an investigatory stop.