GA: Paperwork during stop was returned and stop should have ended, but it didn’t

The stop was unreasonably extended for a dog sniff. The paperwork had been returned and they were told they were free to go. “Thus, the officers prolonged the traffic stop after the mission of the stop was completed in order to conduct an open-air dog sniff, which renders the seizure at issue unlawful. And this is true even if that process added ‘very little time to stop.’” Terry v. State, 2021 Ga. App. LEXIS 34 (Jan. 28, 2021).

Defendant’s post-conviction claim that the inventory sheet was forged was known before his plea and is waived by the plea, even if true. “Even if, for the sake of discussion, we presume the inventory sheets somehow impacted his decision to plead guilty, Mitchell was aware of the potential issues with the inventory sheets and disclosed those issues to his trial counsel before deciding to plead guilty.” State v. Mitchell, 2021-Ohio-210, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 212 (8th Cir. Jan. 28, 2021).* [If the inventory sheets are otherwise correct, it probably doesn’t matter that they were “forged” because the defense can’t show prejudice.]

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