D.Vt.: Roadside questioning here ultimately became custodial

Defendant’s detention on the side of the road evolved into a custodial interrogation because of the officer’s actions in telling defendant she wasn’t going anywhere until the drug dog did its thing and denied her use of the phone and cigarettes. While basic traffic detentions are not custodial interrogations, they can become one and this one did. United States v. Ramos, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71259 (D. Vt. May 21, 2012) (See Howes v. Fields, 132 S. Ct. 1181, 1190, 182 L. Ed. 2d 17 (2012) (holding that “the roadside questioning of a motorist who was pulled over in a routine traffic stop did not constitute custodial interrogation.”); Berkemer v. McCarty, 468 U.S. 420, 436, 104 S. Ct. 3138, 82 L. Ed. 2d 317 (1984) (holding that while motorists subject to routine traffic stops do not generally feel free to leave they are not in custody for Miranda purposes); see Arizona v. Johnson, 555 U.S. 323, 333, 129 S. Ct. 781, 172 L. Ed. 2d 694 (2009) (“An officer’s inquiries into matters unrelated to the justification for the traffic stop … do not convert the encounter into something other than a lawful seizure, so long as those inquiries do not measurably extend the duration of the stop.”);

Defendant was detained too long considering the alleged justification, and his subsequent consent was tainted by the overlong detention. United States v. Petersen, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71551 (D. Utah May 22, 2012).*