New Mexico holds a pretexual seatbelt stop was invalid. State v. Ochoa, 2006 NMCA 131, 144 P.3d 132 (October 23, 2006) (writ of cert granted) and the court’s summary tells it all:<\/p>\n
This case requires us to determine if it is constitutionally reasonable for a police officer to stop a vehicle for a seatbelt violation when he does not personally observe a violation and does so only because he was told to do so by another police officer who wants to talk to the driver of the vehicle. We conclude that such a stop is not constitutionally reasonable. We therefore reverse the order of the district court denying Defendant’s motion to suppress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Ohio, it was held that the officer’s ulterior motive for a stop was irrelevant were there was, in fact, cause for the stop. State v. Bennett, 2006 Ohio 5530, 2006 Ohio App. LEXIS 5510 (5th Dist. October 18, 2006).*<\/p>\n
Lack of findings of fact by the trial court required the appellate court to look for implied findings of fact, and it found the record supported the trial court’s finding on one issue but not another. The court of appeals’ decision reversing the trial court’s suppression order was affirmed. Without the findings, the appeals court compares the evidence and finds the record lacking on that issue. Here, the defendant intentionally disclaimed the Fourth Amendment issue and instead went on the issue that a hospital blood draw by acquiescence was “in violation of law” sufficient to warrant suppression under Texas law. State v. Kelly, 204 S.W.3d 808 (Tex. Crim. App. October 25, 2006).*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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