KY: Seeking consent to search car by threatening to use drug dog unreasonably extended stop

Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, but the officer readily abandoned it by seeking consent and “repeatedly threatened the use of a dog sniff” if he didn’t. Commonwealth v. Conner, 2021 Ky. LEXIS 419 (Dec. 16, 2021):

In this case, instead of diligently pursuing the legitimate purpose of the stop—investigating Garmon’s erratic driving—Officer Mayo abandoned this mission when he repeatedly threatened the use of a dog sniff if Conner did not consent to a search of the van and then made multiple attempts to locate a drug dog. By Officer Mayo’s own testimony, he wholly abandoned Garmon’s potential traffic infraction that prompted the stop in order to investigate Conner’s alleged drug trafficking and secure a drug dog.

Further, Officer Mayo’s pursuit of this new mission obviously added time to the stop because it was conducted in lieu of any legitimate traffic-related inquiries. While Officer Mayo testified at the hearing that he ran Garmon’s license upon first returning to his vehicle, the Commonwealth did not produce any evidence at the hearing to suggest—nor did it argue—that Garmon’s license check was ongoing during the time that Mayo was threatening the use of a drug dog or making phone calls to secure a dog sniff. And the Commonwealth produced no testimony concerning the time it regularly took for Officer Mayo to conduct a license check. Instead, Officer Mayo testified that, upon realizing that Conner was the passenger and recalling the tip that Conner was trafficking methamphetamine, it “sparked [his] interest to investigate further.” The record therefore provides no basis for concluding that the time Officer Mayo took to threaten Conner with a drug dog and locate a canine unit did not add time to the stop because concurrent, legitimate traffic-stop-related inquiries were ongoing.