Court Opinion

ID: 9732104
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:08:11.692802+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:23.305844
License: Public Domain

HUDOCK, J.,
dissenting.
¶ 1 I agree with my learned colleagues that the incident between Officer Marx and Appellant began as a mere encounter when the officer followed Appellant to the door and asked to speak with him after displaying his badge. The Appellant agreed to step back into the restaurant area to speak with the officer, and it was at this point — while the transaction was still a mere encounter — that Appellant dropped the backpack on the floor of this public restaurant, thereby abandoning the backpack under non-coercive circumstances. Appellant’s intent to abandon the property is rather clear from subsequent events, when he shoved the officer and ran out the door, after the officer directed him to retake possession of the backpack. I would not find the seizure of this abandoned contraband to be unconstitutional.
¶ 2 Further, even if there was no abandonment at this point, I believe the totality of circumstances warrant the seizure. I further agree with my learned colleagues that when the officer directed Appellant to bring the bag or backpack with him, this assertion of authority changed the mere encounter to an investigatory detention. However, unlike the majority, I find that the circumstances observed by Officer Marx do rise to the level of a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity justifying the investigative detention. To a lay person, the interaction between Appellant and the courier who delivered the backpack may have simply appeared to be strange behavior; to the eye of this trained law enforcement officer, who had twenty-seven years of police experience, and twenty years narcotics investigatory experience, it appeared
*629to be exactly what it was: a regular drop of drugs.
¶ 3 Accordingly, I dissent.