DE: A few questions unrelated to the purpose of the stop didn’t measurably extend it

Questions asked of defendant that were unrelated to the justification for his traffic stop did not measurably extend the traffic stop. Although an officer’s questions about defendant’s two cell phones, children and the beach were unrelated to defendant’s failure to signal a lane change, the officer did not create a second seizure simply by asking these questions. Even if the stop was measurably extended, the inevitable discovery doctrine applied because the officer was lawfully in a position to observe a gun in plain view. State v. Maddrey, 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 103 (Feb. 25, 2020).

The USMJ’s finding that the good faith exception applied to this facially valid warrant is adopted. United States v. Arroyo-Quinones, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33811 (D.P.R. Feb. 25, 2020).*