E.D.Mo.: Attenuation doctrine can apply to a Rodriguez violation

The attenuation doctrine can apply to a Rodriguez violation. United States v. Wright, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203269 (E.D. Mo. Nov. 8, 2022).

On the surface, there was no reasonable suspicion for extending this stop. The court sets a hearing. “The Court agrees with Defendant that Officer DiRienzo did extend the stop by (i) asking questions unrelated to the traffic violation—including what life was like for Defendant in Massachusetts, and about the taxes in Massachusetts—in order to give another officer time to walk around and look inside Defendant’s vehicle; (ii) by telling Defendant “as long as your license is valid, I’m not going to give you a ticket, I think that’s reasonable” but then directing Defendant to continue waiting outside his car with another officer for nearly seven minutes …; (iii) by returning to Defendant after those seven minutes to ask Defendant whether he carried any contraband in the vehicle …; (iv) by asking if he could search Defendant’s car “bumper to bumper including everything inside of it …; and (v) by having the car sniffed from the outside by the K-9. Clearly, law enforcement sought to address not only the traffic violation, but also possible narcotics trafficking.” [Should have just granted the motion to suppress.] United States v. Zayas, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 202701 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 7, 2022).*

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