E.D.Va.: Drug interdiction officer pursued traffic stop as a drug investigation, and it was suppressed

The stop was justified, but the nature of the questioning wasn’t. The facts show that this was always pursued as a drug investigation and not a traffic stop. United States v. Santiago, 869 F. Supp. 2d 707 (E.D. Va. 2012):

The defendants in this case have moved to suppress evidence seized from their rental car. This case is another in a series of incidents in which police officers stop drivers, ostensibly for routine traffic offenses, and drag out the stop until they have probable cause to search the drivers’ vehicles. [citations omitted] Here, the officer measurably lengthened the stop and expanded the scope of his investigation without reasonable suspicion, thereby violating the defendants’ Fourth Amendment rights. For that reason, the Court will suppress the evidence.

. . .

The heart of this case, however, concerns the second prong of the Terry test—that the seizure must be sufficiently limited in scope and duration. With regard to scope, “the investigative methods employed should be the least intrusive means reasonably available to verify or dispel the officer’s suspicion in a short period of time.” Royer, 460 U.S. at 500; Guijon-Ortiz, 660 F.3d at 764. In terms of duration, the reasonable time for a traffic stop “cannot be stated with mathematical precision,” Branch, 537 F.3d at 336, but a stop may become “unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete [its] mission.” Illinois v. Caballes, 543 U.S. 405, 407 (2005). “If a police officer seeks to prolong a traffic stop to allow for investigation into a matter outside the scope of the initial stop, he must possess reasonable suspicion or receive the driver’s consent.” Digiovanni, 650 F.3d at 507 (citing Branch, 537 F.3d at 336).

. . .

Turning to the traffic stop in this case, the Court finds that Trooper Homiak pursued his mission as a member of the interdiction team. It is not surprising, then, that he failed to diligently pursue the purposes of the stop and embarked on a sustained course of investigation into the presence of drugs in the car that constituted the bulk of the encounter between the officer and defendants. See Digiovanni, 650 F.3d at 509. At the outset, Homiak stayed with the approved script for a routine traffic stop, asking for a license and registration, then inquiring who owned the car before receiving the rental agreement. See Branch, 537 F.3d at 337; Foreman, 369 F.3d at 781. He then informed the defendants of the reason for the encounter—their 82 mph speed. Just over two minutes into the stop, however, Trooper Homiak embarked on a sustained investigation of the defendants’ travel history, plans, and purpose.

The officer’s subsequent actions “bespeak an utter lack of diligence.” Digiovanni, 650 F.3d at 510. Homiak’s questions concerning the defendants’ flight from Puerto Rico, where they were going, how long they were staying, and their purpose for the trip were unrelated to the reason for the traffic stop. This line of questioning continued with Santiago in his patrol car, where Homiak claimed to have been diligently completing the necessary paperwork. …

I’ve seen plenty of videos of stops that were similar but never good enough to suppress. This was clearly over the line.