Officers received word that two men were walking down the street smoking a joint. Officer followed up and found four men standing around, nobody smoking. The officer asked one to approach his car, and he could smell burnt marijuana, and the defendant fled. First, possession of small amounts of marijuana did not qualify as an offense that showed the defendant was a danger justifying a stop. Second, Alaska joins several other states and rejects Hodari D. under the state constitution. The exclusionary rule applies to the fruits of abandonment from an illegal stop. Joseph v. State, 145 P.3d 595 (Alas. App. 2006):
If we are to continue to follow the rule that we announced in Castle–that is, if we are to continue to apply the exclusionary rule to suppress the fruits of unlawful police attempts to detain citizens–then we must do so as a matter of state law.
In this, we would not be alone. Courts in more than a dozen states have already expressly rejected Hodari D. as a matter of state law: See State v. Oquendo, 223 Conn. 635, 613 A.2d 1300, 1309-1310 (Conn. 1992); Flonnory v. State, 805 A.2d 854, 857 (Del. 2001); State v. Quino, 74 Haw. 161, 840 P.2d 358, 362 (Hawai’i 1992); Baker v. Commonwealth, 5 S.W.3d 142, 145, 46 15 Ky. L. Summary 8 (Ky. 1999); State v. Tucker, 626 So.2d 707, 712 (La. 1993); Commonwealth v. Stoute, 422 Mass. 782, 665 N.E.2d 93, 96 (Mass. 1996); Matter of Welfare of E.D.J., 502 N.W.2d 779, 781 (Minn. 1993); State v. Clayton, 2002 MT 67, 309 Mont. 215, 45 P.3d 30, 34 (Mont. 2002); State v. Beauchesne, 151 N.H. 803, 868 A.2d 972, 978-981 (N.H. 2005); State v. Tucker, 136 N.J. 158, 642 A.2d 401, 405 (N.J. 1994); People v. Hollman, 79 N.Y.2d 181, 590 N.E.2d 204, 211-12, 581 N.Y.S.2d 619; 79 N.Y.2d 181, 590 N.E.2d 204, 581 N.Y.S.2d 619, 626-27 (N.Y. 1992); State v. Puffenbarger, 166 Ore. App. 426, 998 P.2d 788, 792-94 (Or. App. 2000); Commonwealth v. Matos, 543 Pa. 449, 672 A.2d 769, 775 (Pa. 1996); State v. Randolph, 74 S.W.3d 330, 336-37 (Tenn. 2002); State v. Young, 135 Wn.2d 498, 957 P.2d 681, 687 (Wash. 1998).
See also Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment (4th ed. 2004), § 9.4(d), Vol. 4, p. 456, where the author declares that the result reached in Hodari D. is “incorrect”, and that the decision in Hodari D. is “aptly characterized … as [a] manifestation of the [Supreme] Court’s surreal and Orwellian view of personal security in contemporary America”. (footnotes omitted)
Nolo plea bars later civil action over PC for that arrest. Phelps v. City of Akron, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74539 (N.D. Ohio October 13, 2006).*
Plaintiff’s detention or arrest for her own good after she exhibited signs of mental illness was based on PC. Douglass v. Sanok, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74561 (W.D. Va. October 11, 2006).*
Defendant was stopped for seatbelt violation, and she was excessively nervous. Officer asked for consent to search and got it, and in plain view in her purse was a baggie of meth. Search sustained. Blitch v. State, 281 Ga. 125, 636 S.E.2d 545 (October 16, 2006).*
Officer observed car in an interstate highway rest area taking two spaces in early morning, so he woke up driver and passenger, and they appeared to be under the influence of drugs since no alcohol could be smelled. They were unkempt, and he suspected they were carrying drugs, although they were only 30 minutes from their destination in Arkansas. The officer asked for and obtained consent “only 22 minutes” into the stop at the rest stop, and it was a reasonable detention. State v. Dodson, 942 So. 2d 579 (La. App. 2d Cir. October 16, 2006).* (Comment: When a court talking about the length of detention says “only 22 minutes,” you know exactly where the court is going. Here, 22 minutes is just too long to be reasonable, unless the court was subconsciously factoring in that they would be asleep otherwise.)
Passenger has standing to challenge the stop of the vehicle. Here, however, a gun was seen in plain view and that justified the search. State v. Rollins, 2006 Ohio 5399, 2006 Ohio App. LEXIS 5395 (2d Dist. October 13, 2006).*
