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Dirty License Plate Grounds for Stop; Lengthy Detention and Search OK

By Shari Allison

U.S. v. Lyons, --- F.3d ----, 2007 WL 4395442 (10th Cir. Dec. 18, 2007)Stop of vehicle at night for a dirty and hard to read license plate was valid, because it was a violation of Kansas law to have an obscured plate. Even though cop wiped the dirt off the registration sticker and read it before talking to driver/D, driver was still in violation of law (unlike 10th Cir. precedent where once cop could see, the assumed illegality disappeared). Also, even though license was dirty because of snow and road conditions the day before, that was the day before, and not immediate, making that forgiving 10th Cir precedent inapplicable too. Cop had suspected drugs in the spare tire on the undercarriage, and that was his reason for hunting for and finding the license plate violation to justify the stop...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on December 21, 2007 (boomark / email).