OH3: Narc told patrol officer def was drug suspect, and patrol officer ran DL and found it was suspended; stop valid despite pretext claim

A patrol officer was told that defendant was a drug suspect. He was told because he had stopped defendant before and was familiar with him. He ran defendant’s name through the state computer and it showed that defendant had no valid DL. When he happened upon defendant going about his shift, he stopped the car. The stop had a factual basis, and the pretext did not make the stop unreasonable. “In this case, Bethel did not make a random traffic stop. Rather, Bethel had probable cause to believe that McDonald was committing a traffic violation because, at the time of the traffic stop, Bethel had actual knowledge that McDonald was operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license.” State v. McDonald, 2017-Ohio-9250, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 5727 (3d Dist. Dec. 26, 2017).