Rheinlander v. State

888 S.W.2d 917, 1994 WL 682961
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 11, 1995
Docket3-93-244-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 888 S.W.2d 917 (Rheinlander v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rheinlander v. State, 888 S.W.2d 917, 1994 WL 682961 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

DALLY, Justice (Retired).

Appellant entered a no contest plea before the court and was convicted of the offense of driving a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated. Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6701Í-1 (West Supp.1994). He preserved his right to appeal from the trial court’s order denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained in an alleged unlawful investigatory stop. We will reverse.

Appellant, in his sole point of error, asserts that the trial court erred in its denial of his motion to suppress evidence. The trial court’s order denying appellant’s motion should not be disturbed on appeal unless there is clear abuse of discretion shown. Davis v. State, 829 S.W.2d 218, 220 (Tex.Crim.App.1992); Freeman v. State, 723 S.W.2d 727, 729 (Tex.Crim.App.1986); State v. Carr, 774 S.W.2d 379, 380 (Tex.App.—Austin 1989, no pet.).

Donald Anthony Haywood, a City of Austin police officer with eleven years experience, testified at the hearing of appellant’s motion to suppress. His testimony is undisputed. On April 22, 1992, at about 11:30 p.m., Haywood was driving on an Interstate Highway 35 frontage road when he noticed a Lincoln Continental ear ahead of him because its lights frequently changed between high and low beam. The ear weaved slightly, but stayed within its lane of travel. It was being driven at between 30 and 35 miles an hour which Haywood thought was unusually slow even though there was no minimum speed limit on the frontage road. Haywood continued to follow the Lincoln Continental as it went from the frontage road to the entry ramp and onto the Interstate Highway. There was scarcely any other traffic on the frontage road and only light traffic on the Interstate where the maximum speed limit was 55 miles an hour. Although Haywood thought erroneously that the minimum speed limit was 45 miles an hour, there is no specified minimum speed limit. As Haywood followed the car onto the Interstate, its lights continued to frequently change between high and low beam, the car continued to weave slightly within its own lane of traffic, and it was still being driven at between 30 and 35 miles an hour. Haywood noticed the driver kept his head close to the steering wheel, looked in the rear view mirror, and seemed to be having “trouble with the dash” or trouble seeing. Haywood believed the car was being driven so slowly that it might dangerously hinder traffic. After he had followed the car for a total of one to one and one-fourth miles, Haywood decided to stop the car. After Haywood stopped the car, he found the appellant was the driver and that there was ample probable cause to arrest appellant for driving while intoxicated. Nothing in Haywood’s testimony indicates that he believed appellant had violated any law that would justify the initial stop of appellant. Haywood was asked: “Did you stop him because you thought he might be intoxicated, or did you stop him because you thought he might be in violation of a traffic law?” Haywood replied, “I stopped him because of the speed he was driving and also to find out if there was a problem with his eyesight or his lights or some other mechanical reason in his car.”

Cases in this State hold that, before a person driving an automobile may be stopped and lawfully detained by an officer, that officer must have specific articulable facts to reasonably suspect that the person stopped is associated with criminal activity. For a stop to be lawful under the reasonable suspicion standard, there must exist articula-ble facts used by the officer to create some reasonable inference of criminal conduct. Viveros v. State, 828 S.W.2d 2, 4 (Tex.Crim.App.1992); Garza v. State, 771 S.W.2d 549, 558 (Tex.Crim.App.1989). A stop is justified if the officer, based upon specific and articu-lable facts, reasonably surmises that the detained person may be associated with a crime. Davis v. State, 829 S.W.2d 218, 219 (Tex.Crim.App.1992) (citing Terry v. Ohio, [919]*919392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)).

Circumstances short of probable cause may justify temporary detention for the purpose of investigation. Johnson v. State, 658 S.W.2d 623, 626 (Tex.Crim.App.1983). An investigatory stop is justified if a police officer, based upon specific and articulable facts, reasonably concludes the detained person may be associated with a crime. For a Terry stop to be valid, (1) the officer must have a reasonable suspicion that some activity out of the ordinary is occurring; (2) there must be some suggestion to connect the detained person with the unusual activity; and (3) there must be some indication that the activity is related to a crime. Johnson, 658 S.W.2d at 626.

Jefferson v. State, 830 S.W.2d 320, 323 (Tex.App.—Austin 1992, pet. ref'd).

Although not yet recognized or adopted by the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Supreme Court has recognized as an exception to the Terry stop a stop made by officers in their “community earetaking function.”

We quote from Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 441, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 2528, 37 L.Ed.2d 706, as follows:

Because of the extensive regulation of motor vehicles and traffic, and also because of the frequency with which a vehicle can become disabled or involved in an accident on public highways, the extent of police-citizen contact involving automobiles will be substantially greater than police-citizen contact in a home or office. Some such contacts will occur because the officer may believe the operator has violated a criminal statute, but many more will not be of that nature. Local police officers, unlike federal officers, frequently investigate vehicle accidents in which there is no claim of criminal liability and engage in what, for want of a better term, may be described as community caretaking functions, totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute.

Based on the rationale of Cady v. Dombrowski, a number of states have recently recognized that in some cases officers exercising their “community caretaking function” are justified in making investigatory stops in the absence of suspected criminal activity. State v. Pinkham, 565 A.2d 318, 319 (Me.1989). (“If we were to insist upon suspicion of activity amounting to criminal or civil infraction to meet the [Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)] standard, we would be overlooking the police officer’s legitimate role as a public servant to assist those in distress and to maintain and foster public safety.”); State v. Fuller, 556 A.2d 224

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Bluebook (online)
888 S.W.2d 917, 1994 WL 682961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rheinlander-v-state-texapp-1995.