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Circuit Snippets

By Shari Allison

In a case reeking of questionable motives (white woman driver, African-American male passenger, predominantly African-American neighborhood known for drug trafficking), the Sixth Circuit concluded that Brendlin's rule that a stop of a car seizes the passengers as well as the driver did not apply where the passenger got out of the car and tried to leave. The officers suspected drug dealing, and thus hemmed in the car after the defendant got back into it. He tried to leave. When he did so, the officers ordered him to stop (they claimed they observed a suspicious "lump" in the front of his sweatshirt and had a look on his "like a deer caught in headlights"). He was found to possess a gun and faced federal gun charges. The district court suppressed, on the basis that even if the defendant was not seized until after he got out of the car and was ordered to stop, the officer did not have reasonable suspicion...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on May 07, 2009 (boomark / email).