Bovie v. State

760 N.E.2d 1195, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 28, 2002 WL 59419
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 17, 2002
Docket48A04-0105-CR-206
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 760 N.E.2d 1195 (Bovie v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bovie v. State, 760 N.E.2d 1195, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 28, 2002 WL 59419 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Ronald L. Bovie appeals the trial court's revocation of his probation. The court found that Bovie violated his probation by Resisting Law Enforcement, 1 a Class A misdemeanor, and by possessing paraphernalia He presents three issues for our review, only two which we will address:

(1) whether his constitutional rights were violated by an illegal investigatory stop, and
(2) whether he was provided notice of the grounds upon which the trial court relied in revoking his probation.

We reverse.

*1197 We first note that the State declined to file an appellee's brief, The obligation of controverting arguments presented by the appellant properly remains with the State. Blunt-Keene v. State, 708 N.E.2d 17, 19 (Ind.Ct.App.1999). When the appellee does not submit a brief, the appellant may prevail by making a prima facie case of error-an error at first sight or appearance. Id. However, we are still obligated to correctly apply the law to the facts of the record to determine if reversal is required. Id.

The record reveals that in 1996, Bovie received a ten-year sentence following a guilty plea for the crime of Dealing in Cocaine. He served one year of the ten-year sentence on in-home detention and the remaining nine years were suspended. However, Bovie was placed on probation for the nine years which made up the remainder of the sentence.

On December 5, 2000, Detective Kevin Early of the Anderson Police Department, and a member of the Madison County Drug Task Force, was observing a house, based upon information he had received that drugs were sold and used at the location. At approximately 11:10 p.m., Detective Early witnessed two men walk from the residence, get into a car, and leave. Detective Early, in an unmarked vehicle, followed the car which Bovie was driving. Detective Early noticed a headlight was out on Bovie's car so he called for a uniformed officer in a marked car to make a traffic stop. Before the marked car arrived, Bovie pulled into a gas station and parked. Detective Early approached the vehicle, showing his badge, in order to stop Bovie. The passenger, a known drug user and dealer, told Bovie to "go" as Detective Early approached. Transcript at 58. As Bovie "took off," a marked car pulled in behind him with lights flashing. Transcript at 57. Bovie pulled forward to the entrance to the street before stopping. Bo-vie was then approached by Detective Early and a uniformed officer. Bovie was arrested, and a subsequent search of his vehicle produced a burnt piece of wire mesh under the passenger seat, which tested positive for cocaine.

I

Investigatory Stop

Upon appeal, Bovie contends that his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated by Detective Early. He argues that Detective Early did not have reasonable suspicion to stop him in relation to any drug activity based upon the informant's tip. He also contends that he could not be stopped for a traffic violation because of the restriction of Ind.Code § 9-30-2-2 (Burns Code Ed. Repl.1997).

A. Constitutional Restraints

In a probation revocation setting, the State was required to show by a preponderance of the evidence that Bovie knowingly or intentionally fled from Detective Early after Early had, by visible or audible means, identified himself and ordered Bovie to stop. I.C. § 35-44-3-3. However, before an individual may actually resist law enforcement by fleeing, the individual must have a duty to stop. This duty to stop arises in two of the three levels of police investigation. In Overstreet v. State, 724 N.E.2d 661, 663 (Ind.Ct.App.2000), reh'g denied, trans. denied, this court noted that the three levels of police investigation are an arrest or detention based upon probable cause, an investigatory stop based upon a reasonable and artic-ulable suspicion, and a consensual encounter in which no Fourth Amendment right is implicated. In this case, we are presented with a situation in which Detective Early was attempting to either make an *1198 investigatory stop or to enter into a consensual encounter with Bovie.

In a consensual encounter, the individual remains free to disregard the police officer and to walk away. Id. at 664. Only when an individual no longer remains free to leave does an investigatory stop begin. Luster v. State, 578 N.E.2d 740, 744 (Ind.Ct.App.1991). It follows that Bo-vie could be found guilty of resisting law enforcement only if he was the subject of an otherwise legal stop. An investigatory stop may be made when a police officer can point to reasonable and articulable facts, and inferences taken from those facts, which would warrant an intrusion upon the constitutionally protected rights of an individual. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); Green v. State, 719 N.E.2d 426, 428 (Ind.Ct.App.1999). An investigatory stop is proper if the facts known to the police officer at the time of the stop are such that a man of reasonable caution would believe that the action taken by the officer was appropriate. Green, 719 N.E.2d at 428. Reasonable suspicion is determined on a case-by-case basis. Id.

In the case before us, outside of the headlight violation, the only basis for the stop was that Detective Early witnessed Bovie and his passenger, a known drug user and seller, leave a "known drug house," proceed to a gas station, and stop their vehicle. These facts alone do not rise to the level of the reasonable and articulable suspicion required in order to make an investigatory stop. See Green, 719 N.E.2d at 430 (holding that the act of driving down a narrow lane that was the access to a wooded area that a detective had been watching because of its use to store marijuana, without accompanying suspicious factors, did not lead to reasonable suspicion to support an investigatory stop); see also Johnson v. State, 659 N.E.2d 116 (Ind.1995) (holding that there was no reasonable suspicion based upon confidential informant's tip that individual driving a brown Jaguar would be in a particular part of town and carrying drugs because no specific details beyond those known to the general public were provided). While Detective Early may have had a "hunch" that something was amiss, a "hunch" is not sufficient to authorize an investigatory stop. Stalling v. State, 713 N.E.2d 922, 925 (Ind.Ct.App.1999).

While we can imagine situations in which Detective Early would have had reasonable and articulable suspicion to make an investigatory stop, we do not see any in the record.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Lamenski Ewing v. State of Indiana
Indiana Supreme Court, 2026
A V v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2024
JAMES A. CASSITY v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2023
Chad E. Hammann v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2023
Richard Jones v. State of Indiana (mem. dec.)
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2015
Erica N. Dumes v. State of Indiana
23 N.E.3d 798 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014)
Jason S. Aliff v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Keion Gaddie v. State of Indiana
10 N.E.3d 1249 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2014)
Caleb J. Brubaker v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2014
Thomas Rayford, Jr. v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2013
Tharl Pinkston v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2013
Keion Gaddie v. State of Indiana
991 N.E.2d 137 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2013)
Thomas Porter v. State of Indiana
985 N.E.2d 348 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2013)
Jordan Heimansohn v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2013
Ignacio Perez v. State of Indiana
981 N.E.2d 1242 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2013)
Julio Chavez v. State of Indiana
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2012

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
760 N.E.2d 1195, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 28, 2002 WL 59419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bovie-v-state-indctapp-2002.