TN: Officer who stopped defendant for smelling of marijuana when he was standing near him earlier was unreasonable

The officer encountered the defendant in a convenience store, and he said he could smell marijuana on his person. Defendant got in his car and drove off. The officer decided to give chase and stop him. The stop was unreasonable, and the product of the stop was used to get a search warrant and that was properly suppressed, too. State v. Jones, 2014 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 207 (March 11, 2014) (concurrence; dissent).

Asking defendant in Spanish about searching the car using the word “buscar” explained he wanted to search. The fact defendant lawyered up when he was Mirandized doesn’t prove that his consent was invalid. United States v. Leiva, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31059 (C.D. Ill. March 7, 2014), R&R 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185873 (C.D. Ill. November 26, 2013):

Some cases have discussed the meaning of buscar in the context of requesting consent to search. In United States v. Flores-Ocampo, the officer said, “¿Me buscar por drugas en su carro?” Flores-Ocampo, 2005 WL 466209, at *10 (D. Kan. February 21, 2005). In DeJesus Gallardo, the officer said, “¿Yo, yo policia yo policia buscar el carro?”, which was translated in that case as, “I I police I police look the car?” DeJesus Gallardo, 2006 WL 296413, at *6. In both cases, the Court found that the suspect understood the officer’s meaning as a request to search the vehicle, and the defendants effectively consented to the search.