State of Minnesota v. Mya Oo

CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 9, 2026
Docketa250388
StatusUnpublished

This text of State of Minnesota v. Mya Oo (State of Minnesota v. Mya Oo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State of Minnesota v. Mya Oo, (Mich. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

This opinion is nonprecedential except as provided by Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 136.01, subd. 1(c).

STATE OF MINNESOTA IN COURT OF APPEALS A25-0388

State of Minnesota, Respondent,

vs.

Mya Oo, Appellant.

Filed February 9, 2026 Reversed and remanded Bentley, Judge

Chippewa County District Court File No. 12-CR-24-290

Keith Ellison, Attorney General, Lydia Villalva Lijó, Assistant Attorney General, St. Paul, Minnesota; and

Matthew Haugen, Chippewa County Attorney, Montevideo, Minnesota (for respondent)

Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Amy Lawler, Assistant Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)

Considered and decided by Schmidt, Presiding Judge; Bratvold, Judge; and Bentley,

Judge.

NONPRECEDENTIAL OPINION

BENTLEY, Judge

Appellant appeals from a final judgment of conviction for controlled substance

crime in the second degree—possession, in violation of Minn. Stat. § 152.022, subd.

2(a)(1) (Supp. 2023). He argues that the district court should have granted his motion to suppress evidence that officers discovered after they expanded the scope of a traffic stop

without reasonable suspicion. We agree and, for that reason, reverse.

FACTS

The following facts derive from the evidence admitted at a contested omnibus

hearing on appellant Mya Oo’s motion to suppress. The evidence included officer

testimony and video footage from the officers’ body-worn and squad-car cameras.

Officer B. 1 was on duty in May 2024 and conducted a traffic stop of a car with a

headlight out. Officer B. approached the car, which had two occupants—the driver and a

passenger in the front passenger seat. The passenger was Oo. When Officer B. initiated

conversation with the occupants, there was a significant language barrier. About ten

minutes into the stop, Officer Y. arrived on scene and connected with an interpreter on his

phone to facilitate communication.

The officers confirmed the name of the driver and that he did not have a valid

license. Oo initially told the officers that he had a driver’s license, but he did not have

identification on hand and wrote his name down. Officer Y. then ran the information Oo

gave him and confirmed that he also did not have a license. Officer B. then expressed his

intent to issue a citation. Officer Y. explained to the driver and Oo that they could not drive

away because neither of them had licenses and that they would need to contact someone

with a license to drive the car. Officer Y. testified that, while he was on scene, Oo “acted

1 We refer to the officers by their initials instead of their full names in accordance with our rules of public access. See Minn. R. Pub. Access to Recs. of Jud. Branch 8, subd. 2(b) (recommending that appellate opinions limit disclosure of witness identities “to what is necessary and relevant”).

2 fidgety and nervous with his demeanor.” Oo “had rapid hand movement, would

avoid . . . eye contact with officers, and would slouch and try not to look at [the officer].”

After running the occupants’ information, Officer B. learned that the driver had an active

Wisconsin arrest warrant.

During the wait to “confirm[] the warrant with Wisconsin,” Officer B. asked the

driver to get out of the car. The driver complied, leaving the door partially open at about a

45-degree angle, and walked with Officer B. to the rear of the car to talk. Officer B.

explained to the driver that he had a warrant in Wisconsin, but they were not planning to

arrest him at that time. As they were talking, the footage from Officer B.’s squad-car

camera shows that Officer Y. approached the driver’s car door, began looking into the car’s

interior with his flashlight, opened the door the rest of the way, and stepped closer to the

interior of the car.

Officer Y. then alerted Officer B. that he saw what he identified as drug

paraphernalia in the pocket of the door on the driver’s side. The paraphernalia was

described as “a small bottle with like a straw . . . attached to it on the side as if [it was]

some type of smoking device with red liquid in it.” At that point, Officer B. asked the driver

if there were drugs in the car and received his consent to search the car. While conducting

the search, Officer Y. searched a satchel on Oo’s seat and found “a large amount of

methamphetamine.” He asked Oo if the satchel was his, Oo said yes, and Officer Y.

arrested him.

Respondent State of Minnesota charged Oo with controlled-substance crime in the

second degree—possession, in violation of Minnesota Statutes section 152.022,

3 subdivision 2(a)(1). The district court held a contested omnibus hearing on Oo’s motion to

suppress evidence obtained in the search. At the omnibus hearing, Officers B. and Y.

testified, and the district court received five exhibits including the body-worn and squad-

car camera footage. In his testimony, when asked on direct examination if he “ha[d] to

open the door [him]self . . . to see this meth paraphernalia?” Officer Y. said he “did not,”

and agreed that he “had seen it after [the driver] exited the vehicle himself and [the driver]

open[ed] the door himself.” On cross-examination, Officer Y. was asked if, after the driver

left the car door open “at around a 45[-degree] angle,” Officer Y. “immediately fully

opened the door.” He answered that he did “not recall if [he] did or not.”

After the hearing, the district court denied the motion to suppress. In its order, the

district court found, “[The driver] partially opened the driver’s side door and exited the

vehicle. [Officer Y.] assisted in opening the door until he noticed drug paraphernalia within

the driver’s side door compartment.” The district court further determined, “An officer

opening a car door is an expansion of the traffic stop if not tied to the original purpose of

the stop.” (Quotation omitted). The district court concluded, nevertheless, that the officers

had reasonable suspicion to expand the stop. The district court explained:

[T]he driver of the vehicle did not have a valid driver’s license. This provided officers additional suspicion that he was driving without a license, a misdemeanor offense. Because there was an additional basis for an expansion of the traffic stop, [Officer Y.’s] decision to fully open the car door was lawful. The drug paraphernalia was in plain view to him once the door was fully open and his training and experience allowed him to identify the drug paraphernalia.

4 (Citation omitted.) The district court also determined that the satchel was a “container

inside the vehicle” that could be validly searched under the automobile exception.

A jury found Oo guilty of second-degree possession. The district court sentenced

Oo to 108 months’ imprisonment, with credit for time served and an opportunity to serve

a portion of his sentence on supervised release.

Oo appeals.

DECISION

The issue on appeal is relatively narrow. Oo does not dispute that, based on the

headlight equipment violation, the traffic stop was justified at its inception. See State v.

George, 557 N.W.2d 575, 578 (Minn. 1997) (“Ordinarily, if an officer observes a violation

of a traffic law, however insignificant, the officer has an objective basis for stopping the

vehicle.”). He also does not challenge the lawfulness of the officer’s request for the driver

to exit the vehicle. See State v.

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State of Minnesota v. Mya Oo, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-of-minnesota-v-mya-oo-minnctapp-2026.