E.D.Va.: When officer takes your license to run it, you’re seized

“Officer Myers’ instruction to ‘hang tight’ while he ran Defendant’s driver’s license [and had it in hand], would lead a reasonable person in Defendant’s shoes not to feel free to leave. Thus, the consensual encounter became a seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and the Court next turns to whether the police officers had reasonable suspicion to justify that seizure.” The officer then ran warrants, and an arrest warrant was found. The fact that took three minutes is not constitutionally unreasonable because the officer was entitled to at least check defendant’s record. That led to a valid search incident to arrest. United States v. Morgan, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136835 (E.D. Va. July 2, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136527 (E.D. Va. Aug. 13, 2018).