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Unlawful for Officer to Arrest without Probable Cause to Detain a Driver

By Walin & Klarich

What an Experienced Criminal Defense Attorney Can Do for You An officer must see an objective violation of the law, or have reasonable suspicion that a crime is about to occur or has occurred, before an officer may detain an individual. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 116 S. Ct. 1769, 135 L. Ed. 2d 89 (1996). In Whren, the United States? Supreme Court held that a police officer?s subjective intentions do not defeat the lawfulness of a detention based upon probable cause to believe that a motorist has violated a traffic code. An officer?s subjective opinion that an individual?s driving is unusual, does not justify a detention in the absence of objective probable cause that there was a violation of the vehicle code. E.g. Taylor v. Department of Motor Vehicles, (1995) 36 Cal...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on July 14, 2009 (boomark / email).