Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

VA: Telling motorist drug dog is coming is a detention; no reasonable person would feel free to leave

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Stop "became non-consensual when Sergeant Dimitry told Middlebrooks that a drug dog was coming to run his vehicle." Middlebrooks v. Commonwealth, 2008 Va. App. LEXIS 376 (August 5, 2008): We need not resolve whether Officer D'Orio seized Middlebrooks when he asked Middlebrooks to step out of his vehicle because no evidence was obtained from Middlebrooks at that time. However, it is clear that once Sergeant Dimitry told Middlebrooks, "I just want to let you know I'm going to call the drug dog out. I'm going to have him run your car," no reasonable person would have felt free to leave. The facts of this case are similar to Deer v. Commonwealth, 17 Va. App. 730, 441 S.E.2d 33 (1994). In Deer, appellant was pulled over by a police officer and given a citation for speeding...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).