IA: Stop was admittedly pretextual, but objective facts supported it

Defendant was tried and acquitted of possession and was involved in a forfeiture action. Because he was acquitted the state can’t rely on losing the motion to suppress in the trial court because there was no appeal. The stop was admittedly pretextual because the officer was going to make a stop for alleged drugs and was waiting for a traffic offense to make the stop. The stop was objectively reasonable despite the pretext. In the Matter of Property Seized from Parsee, 2015 Iowa App. LEXIS 196 (February 25, 2015):

Although Pardee claims—and the facts clearly establish—the stop was pretextual and based on the trooper’s intent to conduct an interdiction investigation, the trooper stopped the vehicle after he observed an equipment violation and a traffic infraction, which Pardee does not dispute here. See State v. Hoskins, 711 N.W.2d 720, 726 (Iowa 2006); accord State v. Kinkead, 570 N.W.2d 97, 100 (Iowa 1997); State v. Mitchell, 498 N.W.2d 691, 693 (Iowa 1993); State v. Reisetter, 747 N.W.2d 792, 795 (Iowa Ct. App. 2008) (“The principal function of an investigatory stop is to resolve the ambiguity as to whether criminal activity is afoot.”). Consequently, the equipment and traffic violations provided probable cause to stop the vehicle in which Pardee was a passenger.

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