NC: Stop violated Rodriquez because def was frisked, put in patrol car, and extensive criminal history checks run

Defendant was stopped in a rental car for speeding and following too close, and the officer thought defendant’s breathing showed excessive nervousness. The officer got defendant out of the car and frisked him and had him get in the patrol car. He asked further questions and ran defendant though databases other than for the validity of his DL. The extension of the stop violated Rodriquez in going beyond the mission of the stop. State v. Bullock, 2016 N.C. App. LEXIS 526 (May 10, 2016):

Even assuming Officer McDonough had a right to ask defendant to exit the vehicle while he ran defendant’s license, his actions that followed certainly extended the stop beyond what was necessary to complete the mission. The issue is not whether Officer McDonough could lawfully request defendant to exit the vehicle, but rather whether he unlawfully extended and prolonged the traffic stop by frisking defendant and then requiring defendant to sit in the patrol car while he was questioned. To resolve that issue, we follow Rodriguez and focus again on the overall mission of the stop. We hold, based on the trial court’s findings of fact, that Officer McDonough unlawfully prolonged the detention by causing defendant to be subjected to a frisk, sit in the officer’s patrol car, and answer questions while the officer searched law enforcement databases for reasons unrelated to the mission of the stop and for reasons exceeding the routine checks authorized by Rodriguez.