Court Opinion

ID: 9495489
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:03:59.995863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:02.857685
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in Judge Bye’s majority opinion remanding this case to the district court. I do so solely to provide a majority in the judgment of this court. I cannot endorse Judge Gibson’s dissenting analysis for several reasons.
The first and primary reason is that this case in its ultimate disposition should be affirmed. Any other analytical view fails to give a reasonable and common sense approach to an officer carrying out his duties under the law. There is no question in this case that the officer had a reasonable basis for pulling over the Tracker to determine whether the owner of the vehicle was driving the car or was a passenger in the car. The owner was wanted on a misdemeanor warrant and was a fugitive at the time. After the officer had determined that the owner of the vehicle was not in the car, it was reasonable for him, in view of the fact that the owner of the vehicle was a fugitive, to inquire of the driver as to her license. I find nothing meritorious in engaging in a discussion as to whether he had a right to do so (which I feel that he did), but simply point out that the driver of the car responded to him that her license was not in her possession but was at home. The driver of the car did not object to the officer asking such a question nor did she object to his taking her back to his vehicle in order to verify her statement.
There is no question that the defendant in the present case, Barlow, as a passenger in the car, had no standing to object to any question the officer might address to the driver. Once it was determined that the driver was in violation of Minnesota law by not having her license in her possession, the officer was certainly within his duty to detain her. He could not allow her to drive the car. She had no license and, under the circumstances, no reasonable police officer would allow an unlicensed driver to drive the car away from the scene of the stop. Barlow had no standing to protest the officer questioning the driver. Additionally, once the officer determined that there was a violation of the Minnesota statute, it was reasonable for the officer to ask the two passengers to remove themselves from the car, and for purposes of the officer’s safety, to submit them to a pat down.
The courts are always concerned about intrusion into the civil rights of citizens, but at the same time the courts should recognize the officer’s duty, under given circumstances, to make certain that no other crime is taking place. I am confident that any reasonable officer would have done the same as Officer Hedberg in asking the driver for her license, particularly in light of the fact that she was driving a vehicle owned by a fugitive.
Considering the entirety of what occurred at the scene, I feel that the end result of this case should be a denial of the motion to suppress, and the conviction be allowed to stand.
However, based upon my concurrence with Judge Bye’s opinion, it will allow the matter to go back to the district court for a complete review of the record and facts by the district court, which did not take place in the first instance. Once that rec*902ord has been verified and the district court has had an opportunity to review the matter again, I am confident that the final result will be a denial of the motion to suppress either by the district court or certainly by this court in review.