45 minute roadside detention for sorting out authority to drive a rental vehicle was reasonable

Defendant was stopped for speeding. The officer noticed the California tag was expired. The driver’s DL had been expired for two years. He and the passenger, his sister, said that the vehicle was a rental from Enterprise in another person’s name, but neither had a copy of the rental agreement. The driver was asked to come back to the patrol car while Enterprise was contacted, and they entered into conversation. Occasionally the officer asked questions of the passenger. Enterprise finally advised that it was their car, it was rented in California and not supposed to be in Wyoming, and neither of the occupants were authorized to be driving it. Therefore, the officer was impounding the car. He wrote traffic tickets and gave the occupants an option to walk to a nearby town with their luggage or he would drive them. As a condition of driving them, however, the officer said he needed to know whether the bags contain contraband or weapons. They both consented to a search and cocaine and meth were found in the bag. The consent was valid. The 45 minute detention was reasonable while the issue of the rental car was resolved. The consent to search the bag was not coerced. Hembree v. State, 2006 WY 127, 143 P.3d 905 (October 11, 2006).