Court Opinion

ID: 9505348
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:04:00.162774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:24.366278
License: Public Domain

BOEHM, J.,
dissenting.
As the majority notes, we review these reasonable suspicion determinations de novo. Under that standard, I have no trouble finding that the information supplied by the Meijer store employees provided the officers with grounds for reasonable suspicion that a crime was afoot. The police were told that two men lingered in front of the cold remedy section of the store where one finds products containing ephedrine, a widely known ingredient of methamphetamine. Each selected the maximum number of packages that the store is to sell to one customer without notifying law enforcement. The two then separated and checked out individually. They are then observed emptying the pills into bags of loose pills. Of common human activities of which I am aware, I can think of nothing these actions suggest except preparation to cook these pills into some broth. It seems to me that the police had a moral certainty, not just reasonable suspicion, that they had some unregulated pharmaceutical manufacturers on their hands. I would reverse and remand for trial.
SHEPARD, C.J., joins.