Court Opinion

ID: 9755909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:59:25.400582+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:12.905304
License: Public Domain

RAKER, Judge, concurring:
Today the Court holds that Officer Moro did not have a reasonable basis for frisking petitioner and that the evidence recovered by him as a result of the frisk and subsequent extended search was inadmissible. I agree. While I join in the Court’s opinion, I write separately for two reasons.
First, it is important to note that while the circumstances do not support a Terry frisk, neither do the facts or circumstances support a Terry stop. See Carmouche v. State, 10 S.W.3d 323, 329 (Tex.Crim.App.2000) (noting that by stating that defendant’s pat-down search was justified because he had “ ‘reasonable suspicion to believe that [defendant] was involved in criminal activity,’ ” the intermediate appellate court improperly conflated the legal standard justifying the initial stop with the legal authority to conduct the frisk. “Terry and its progeny have carefully distinguished the two and emphasized the different justifications for each.”).
Second, I disagree with the majority’s dicta that “if the officer seeks to justify a Fourth Amendment intrusion based on that conduct, the officer ordinarily must offer some explanation of why he or she regarded the conduct as suspicious; otherwise, there is no ability to review the officer’s action.” Maj. op. at. 111, 816 A.2d at 908. The reasonable, articulable suspicion standard is an objective standard, not a subjective one, and does not hinge upon the subjective belief of an officer. There may be a reasonable, articulable basis for a stop or frisk even though that basis was not articulated at the suppression hearing.
*113I. The Terry Stop
In the instant case, the State’s sole basis for the encounter between petitioner and the police is that “[w]hen the officer saw the suspicious activity that led him to believe Ransome might have a handgun, the officer was entitled under Terry to stop him to investigate his suspicions and to frisk him to secure the officer’s safety.” 1 Sufficient and articulable facts to justify the limited intrusion of a Terry investigative stop are lacking. In order to have a valid Terry frisk, there must first be a valid Terry stop. Once a valid Terry stop has been made, police may conduct a frisk of the suspect if they have a reasonable, particularized, articulable suspicion that the suspect is armed. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 27, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 1883, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
To justify a Terry stop, an officer must have reasonable, articulable grounds to believe that a particular person is committing, is about to commit, or has committed a crime. A Terry stop is a commonly used investigative tool of law enforcement, often necessary to permit an officer to investigate criminal activity effectively and safely. The reasonable suspicion required for a Terry stop is more than a hunch, requiring at least “some minimal level of objective justification” based on the totality of the circumstances. United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7-8, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989).
In my view, sufficient grounds for a Terry stop are lacking in this case. The United States Supreme Court has stated *114repeatedly that it is not possible to articulate precisely the meaning of “reasonable suspicion” or “probable cause.” See Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 695, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 1661, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). The concepts are “commonsense, nontechnical conceptions that deal with ‘the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.’ ” Id., 517 U.S. at 695, 116 S.Ct. at 1661, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2328, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)). If Ransome’s actions were sufficient to warrant a Terry stop, then anyone standing on a corner, talking with a friend in the late evening, in a high-crime area, with an unidentified “bulge” in a pocket, may be stopped. There is nothing in the record to indicate that Ransome was about to commit a crime or that he was committing a crime. The frisk or pat-down of Ransome cannot be justified as a protective Terry frisk flowing from a valid Terry stop. Moreover, a Terry frisk may not be used to see if a person is hiding something that may be evidence of illegal activity. In essence, a Terry frisk is a limited pat-down for the protection and safety of the officer during an investigative detention. See Ybarra v. Illinois, 444 U.S. 85, 93-94, 100 S.Ct. 338, 343, 62 L.Ed.2d 238 (1979). “The purpose of this limited search is not to discover evidence of crime, but to allow the officer to pursue his investigation without fear of violence.” Adams v. Williams, 407 U.S. 143, 146, 92 S.Ct. 1921, 1923, 32 L.Ed.2d 612 (1972).
II. Reasonable, Articulable Suspicion
In order to justify a stop or a frisk under the strictures of Terry, the police officer must “be able to point to specific and articulable facts, which taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.” 392 U.S. at 21, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889. The standard to determine the reasonableness of a particular search or seizure is an objective one. The question is whether “the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or the search ‘warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that *115the action taken was appropriate.” Id. at 21-22, 88 S.Ct. at 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889. An investigatory Terry stop is permissible if the officer has specific and articulable cause to believe that criminal activity is afoot; a Terry frisk is permissible if the officer has specific and articulable cause to believe that the individual stopped is armed and therefore poses a danger to himself or others.
“Articulable” does not mean articulated. See Dennis v. State, 345 Md. 649, 660-62, 693 A.2d 1150, 1155-56 (1997) (Raker, J., dissenting). Reasonable suspicion is measured by an objective test, not a subjective one. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 1774, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996).2 Therefore, the validity of the stop or the frisk is not determined by the subjective or articulated reasons of the officer; rather, the validity of the stop or frisk is determined by whether the record discloses articulable objective facts to support the stop or frisk. See, e.g., United States v. McKie, 951 F.2d 399, 402 (D.C.Cir.1991) (noting that the standard under Terry is one of objective reasonableness, and thus “we are not limited to what the stopping officer says or to evidence of his subjective rationale; rather, we look to the record as a whole to determine what facts were known to the officer and then consider whether a reasonable officer in those circum*116stances would have been suspicious”); United States v. Hawkins, 811 F.2d 210, 212-15, 215 n. 5 (3d Cir.) (holding that Terry stop may be justified when circumstances presented a reasonable objective basis for a stop even though the officer’s stated reasons for the stop were pretextual), cert denied, 484 U.S. 833, 108 S.Ct. 110, 98 L.Ed.2d 69 (1987); State v. Heminover, 619 N.W.2d 353, 356-62 (Iowa 2000) (holding that the State is not limited to reasons stated by investigating officer as grounds to justify a stop because reasonable suspicion is an objective standard, and an officer’s subjective reasons for making a Terry stop are not controlling); City of Fargo v. Sivertson, 571 N.W.2d 137, 139, 141 (N.D.1997) (noting that subjective intent of arresting officer is not a factor in establishing reasonable suspicion for a Terry stop); State v. Hawley, 540 N.W.2d 390, 392-93 (N.D.1995) (holding that arresting officer had reasonable suspicion justifying a Terry stop despite the fact that he did not form any suspicion of criminal activity because reasonable suspicion is an objective, not subjective, standard); 4 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure § 9.4(a), at 138-40 (3d ed. 1996 & Supp.2003) (stating that the reasonable suspicion test under Terry is “purely objective and thus there is no requirement that an actual suspicion by the officer be shown;” “the objective grounds as to one offense are not defeated because the officer either thought or stated he was acting with regard to some other offense”). In this regard, I agree with the dissent of Judge Battaglia and Judge Cathell. See Diss. op. at 123, 816 A.2d at 915.
The appropriate test is not what the investigating officer articulates, but whether, looking at the record as a whole, a reasonable officer in those circumstances would have reasonably believed petitioner was engaged in criminal activity or about to do so. This is not to say that an officer’s expertise gained from special training and experience can never be helpful. When an investigating officer has specialized training and testifies to inferences and deductions that may appear innocent to the untrained observer, the court may take that testimony into consideration in determining whether reasonable suspicion exists. The court is not bound by such testimo*117ny, nor is such testimony required. The officer’s perceptions, deductions or inferences do not necessarily amount to objective facts.
The majority’s view that “if the officer seeks to justify a Fourth Amendment intrusion based on that conduct, the officer ordinarily must offer some explanation of why he or she regarded the conduct as suspicious; otherwise, there is no ability to review the officer’s action” is based on United States v. Gooding, 695 F.2d 78 (4th Cir.1982), a case that pre-dated Whren. This notion does not reflect the view of the majority of courts, and I have serious doubts that it is still viable in light of Whren.
I join in the judgment of the Court because I believe that, on this record as a whole, the officer did not have reasonable, articulable suspicion to stop or frisk petitioner.

. Of course, the police may engage in consensual conversations with persons even if there is no basis to stop the person. See Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 434, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 2386, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991) (“[A] seizure does not occur simply because a police officer approaches an individual and asks a few questions.”). At the suppression hearing in the instant case, the State argued that the initial encounter between the officers and petitioner was consensual, evolving into a Terry stop based upon the nervousness and demeanor of petitioner. Although the police may use information gathered during a consensual encounter to justify a Terry stop if they gather sufficient information to develop reasonable suspicion, the State does not make that argument before this Court to justify the stop or frisk.

. In Whren v. United States, the Supreme Court noted that "the fact that the officer does not have the state of mind which is hypothecated by the reasons ... [providing] the legal justification for the officer’s action does not invalidate the action taken as long as the circumstances, viewed objectively, justify that action.” 517 U.S. 806, 813, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 1774, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996) (citations omitted). Although Whren dealt with probable cause, the reasoning has been applied equally to reasonable suspicion analysis. See State v. Heminover, 619 N.W.2d 353, 360 (Iowa 2000) (noting that even though Whren deals with probable cause to stop in a tr affic violation, “Whren settles the question because we think there should be no distinction between a stop based on probable cause and a stop based on reasonable suspicion, i.e., a Terry stop”); see also Dennis v. State, 345 Md. 649, 660, 693 A.2d 1150, 1155 (1997) (Raker, J., dissenting) (noting, in regard to reasonable suspicion justifying a Terry stop, that “Whren stands for the proposition that in determining the legitimacy of police conduct under the Fourth Amendment, a court must look to objective circumstances, and not the subjective motivations of the police officer”).