Police can’t detain a driver to check for outstanding violations unless officers have reasonable suspicion of a crime, the N.C. Court of Appeals has ruled in an Anson County case.
A divided three-judge panel said Tuesday that Keith A. Leak’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when Lilesville Police Chief Bobby Gallimore ran his driver license after stopping behind Leak’s parked car to offer assistance in April 2012.
The ruling overturns Richmond County Superior Court Judge Tanya Wallace’s August 2013 denial of Leak’s motion to suppress evidence that led to his arrest on a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Judges Sanford L. Steelman Jr. and Ann Marie Calabria found that Leak’s motion to suppress should have been granted because the license check constituted an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Judge J. Douglas McCullough dissented, finding the Lilesville chief’s actions to be constitutional.
If the decision stands, it will have statewide implications for law enforcement officers and suggests evidence gleaned from license checks will be tossed out if a defendant can show there was no reason to suspect criminal activity.
THE ENCOUNTER
Gallimore spotted Leak’s car parked in a gravel area near U.S. 74 at 11:30 p.m. April 30, 2012 and stopped to see if the driver needed help. Before approaching Leak’s car, Gallimore entered the license plate in his computer and learned that Leak was the registered owner.
Leak told Gallimore he had pulled off the road to return a text message and did not need help, according to the Court of Appeals’ case summary. Gallimore asked to see Leak’s license and saw that it matched the vehicle registration.
“After examining defendant’s driver’s license, Chief Gallimore took it to the patrol vehicle to investigate the status of defendant’s driver’s license,” the appellate ruling states. “It was undisputed that Chief Gallimore had no suspicion that defendant was involved in criminal activity.”
Gallimore ran a check on Leak’s license and found an outstanding warrant for arrest from 2007. Returning to the car, he asked Leak to step out of the vehicle. Leak told the chief he had a .22-caliber pistol in his pocket.
Gallimore arrested Leak on a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon.
“The record does not indicate whether defendant was ever prosecuted for the offense alleged in the 2007 arrest warrant,” the ruling notes.
Leak has a 1993 felony conviction of selling a Schedule II controlled substance as well as two misdemeanor convictions from 1995, according to the N.C. Division of Adult Correction.
THE OUTCOME
Leak was indicted on the felony gun-possession charge and misdemeanor carrying a concealed weapon in June 2012.
On Aug. 5, 2013, Leak “filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained at the time of his arrest on the grounds that the evidence had been ‘seized in or as a result of’ a seizure in ‘violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and similar provisions in the North Carolina Constitution,’” Steelman wrote.
Wallace heard the motion to suppress on Aug. 5 and entered an order denying the motion two days later.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Leak pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon on Nov. 14, 2013. Leak reserved his right to appeal Wallace’s denial of his motion.
Leak received a suspended sentence of 9-20 months in prison and was placed on 12 months of supervised probation. State records indicate he successfully completed the terms of his probation on the charge.
Leak appealed Wallace’s decision to the Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in the case on Oct. 8, 2014.
Narendra K. Ghosh of the Chapel Hill law firm Patterson Harkavy LLP represented Leak on appeal. Assistant Attorney General Ebony J. Pittman argued on the state’s behalf.
THE RULING
Steelman and Calabria found that Leak’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the Lilesville chief walked off with his license, holding that Leak was not free to leave and was being detained absent suspicion of wrongdoing.
In the majority opinion, Steelman cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Rodriguez v. United States and the 2009 N.C. Court of Appeals ruling in State v. Jackson.
The nation’s high court ruled in Rodriguez that law enforcement officers must have reasonable suspicion of a crime to make a stopped driver wait for a K-9 to arrive and perform a drug sniff. Rodriguez rejected the argument that a “de minimus” or brief seizure was permissible if the seizure did not meet Fourth Amendment requirements.
“We hold that defendant was seized in violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Steelman wrote.
The majority ruled that Gallimore’s discovery of the concealed handgun stemmed from the unlawful seizure and that evidence gleaned from the license check should have been thrown out.
“There was no evidence that defendant’s pistol was or could have been discovered ‘by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint’ of the unlawful seizure,” Steelman wrote.
In a five-page dissenting opinion, McCullough argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Rodriguez does not require officers to have separate standards for investigative activity when a vehicle is stopped for a violation and when an officer seeks to help a presumably stranded driver.
“I would hold that so long as an officer’s approach to a vehicle is for a valid purpose, including the possibility of rendering assistance, he is able to take the same routine steps that he would be allowed to do if he had observed an actual traffic violation,” McCullough wrote.
Tuesday’s ruling may not be the last word on the matter. Decisions of a divided appellate panel are considered appeals of right, meaning the N.C. Supreme Court is obligated to hear the case if a party chooses to appeal it.
Reach Editor Corey Friedman at 910-817-2670 and follow him on Twitter @RCDailyJournal.