06/12/2018
Even in a small, conservative, religious community like Burley, the Rule of Law sometimes applies and I am in awe of those judges who have the courage to “rule correctly” in the face of voters who may be too ignorant to appreciate what courageous thing the judge did. Case in point: client is CA resident, he, wife and mother have all got licenses to grow and sell ma*****na, 6.5 lbs each. Client decides to visit his brother in Idaho Falls. Brother works for INEL and is somewhat of a hero. Client’s wife and mother take his MJ out of his pickup and put it in his SUV, thinking he’ll drive the truck. Late at night client decides to save money on gas and jumps in the SUV and takes off (unknowingly with over 11 lbs of MJ). He gets lost and drives clear to Burley before realizing he overshot it. He turns around and heads back to IF, but ISP Trooper sees CA plates, profiles him as a drug mule and takes after him. Trooper pulls client over alleging trooper could see with his naked eyes, the rear tires of client’s SUV “get close to” the semi truck along side him and then “quickly jerk right” and “begin to ride the fog line quite a distance!” Problem: trooper is lying. No human can see what he claimed to be able to see OVER 3 football fields away! Once Trooper has client pulled over, client immediately gets out and starts walking toward the trooper; troop screams for “Bob” to “get back in your car!” When I asked Trooper why he ordered Bob back? Trooper says “cause there’s only 2 reasons drivers get out: 1. they intend to fight me; or 2. they have drugs on board and get out in order to create a diversion.” Once Bob is seated again in the driver’s seat, trooper walks up to passenger door and immediately opens it, leans in with his whole torso and spots a 1/2 bottle of beer in a 5-gal. bucket. Trooper declares this observation gives him probable cause (without a warrant, without consent) to search the car! Trooper discovers the MJ and pats himself on the back and charges Bob with trafficking in MJ; not because he had any intention whatsoever to, but simply (in Idaho) because he brought >5 lbs into Idaho. Bob is now facing MANDATORY 3 yrs in prison if convicted. My colleagues Dan Truscott and Beverly Cheney and I put our heads together and determine that this trooper’s stop of Bob’s car had 2 problems: 1. Trooper lied about being able to see what he claims he saw (but which was contradicted by the camera) of the entire stop; and 2. that Trooper needed a search warrant or Bob’s permission to open the passenger door! A MOTION TO SUPPRESS EVIDENCE which was seized illegally was filed. The Burley District Court ruled in our favor and although not wanting to call the trooper a liar on what he claimed he could see from over 3 football fields away, nonetheless held that trooper had absolutely NO RIGHT to enter Bob’s vehicle, and SUPPRESSED ALL THE MJ FOUND, even the 1/2 bottle of beer!
Interestingly, trooper and prosecutor wanted SO BADLY to make the trooper’s illegal search legal, trooper actually testified that he DIDN’T Open the passenger door, “it just came open” he said. When I asked “how he thought this could happen?” Trooper testified “well, maybe your client reached over and maybe opened the door for me in order to let me talk to him!” Hahahaha I said, “was this the same man who you could not suffer to get out of his vehicle because he was going to hurt you!” The trooper’s face flushed red.
Long story short, Bob wasn’t trying to sell MJ in Idaho, didn’t even know it was onboard until he was stopped. The District Court COULD HAVE ruled that both the stop AND search were legal. If the court had ruled this way, justice may never have been reached because Bob couldn’t afford to drive from CA to Idaho to defend himself, he’d already done it a half dozen times. But the Cassia County District Court ruled that although the reason for the stop was acceptable, the entry into the vehicle was NOT! Trooper had ZERO reasonable suspicion to believe there were “drugs” onboard and COULD NOT have gotten a judge to issue a warrant BASED ON what the trooper knew up till the time he opened Bob’s door. The MOST trooper could legitimately written Bob a citation for (prior to entry into Bob’s car) was possibly “failure to maintain Lane,” which would have been fine. But the truly amazing thing about this case was that this court did the RIGHT THING” even though it might come back to haunt him in the next election. Moral courage to do the right thing when he could easily have let it “slide” is commendable, remarkable, courageous and notable. It makes me proud to be an attorney!
