State v. Kolk

1 In this case, a roadside frisk led to the discovery of drugs without a prescription, providing the justification for the arrest of the defendant driver and a search of his vehicle that uncovered more drugs. The State argued before the trial court that the frisk was valid because there was reasonable suspicion that the driver was carrying drugs or, alternatively, that the driver consented to it. The trial court rejected the States arguments and suppressed the drugs. The State renews these arguments on appeal, but we affirm the trial court. The reasonable suspicion argument fails because the citizen informant who first alerted police to the possible criminal activity of the driver did not demonstrate how he or she knew about the activities reported--a factor we believe the case law holds to be of utmost importance in considering a tips reliability. Nor was the citizen informants so-called "predictive information" verified as to time and place such that it significantly strengthened the credibility of the tip. The argument that the driver consented also fails because at the time of the claimed consent, the driver was detained beyond the legal justification of the traffic stop and without reasonable suspicion.