OH2: On entry to arrest defendant when children were found at home, it was not unreasonable to look for others to care for them

On arresting defendant at home, the police later obtained a search warrant, too. The initial entry into the rest of the house to look for someone to tend to the children with defendant at the time of arrest was reasonable. State v. Stoermer, 2019-Ohio-3804, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3867 (2d Dist. Sept. 20, 2019).

Defendant drove up to the entry control box of a gated community with a lot of new construction going on at night. He stopped at the entry point with his brakes on. The officer came back a few minutes later, and he was still there, stopped. The officer decided to observe because it was night time, and he wanted to be sure that the car belonged there and wasn’t there to steal construction items. Another car pulled in behind and flashed his lights. Defendant didn’t respond or move. That driver walked up to the window and came back to his car. The officer then approached defendant’s car, and he seemed to be going between being passed out and lethargic when he was talked to, when he responded. The officer had reasonable suspicion defendant was under the influence. The trial court erred in suppressing the stop. State v. Welch, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 14335 (Fla. 2d DCA Sept. 20, 2019).*

This entry was posted in Arrest or entry on arrest, Community caretaking function, Reasonable suspicion. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.