State v. Anderson

359 N.W.2d 887, 1984 S.D. LEXIS 430
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 12, 1984
Docket14493
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 359 N.W.2d 887 (State v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Anderson, 359 N.W.2d 887, 1984 S.D. LEXIS 430 (S.D. 1984).

Opinions

MORGAN, Justice.

This court allowed the state of South Dakota to appeal a suppression order entered by the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. The trial judge held that Highway Patrolman Steven Kenoyer (Kenoyer) did not have probable cause to stop and arrest Jim Dale Anderson (Anderson) and that all evidence derived from the stop and arrest including the breathalyzer and blood test results, should be suppressed. We reverse and remand.

The Wall, South Dakota, Police Department telephoned Kenoyer at his home in Philip, South Dakota, at approximately 8:13 a.m. on March 17, 1983. The Wall Police Chief told Kenoyer that an intoxicated driver had left a Wall gas station headed east toward Philip in a black International Scout. Kenoyer drove west out of Philip and located the Scout between Philip and Wall. He followed it for two miles back [889]*889into Philip and observed the Scout’s speed vary from 45 to 55 miles per hour and saw it cross the white shoulder line once. When the Scout entered Philip it stopped at a stop sign and turned right. Kenoyer noticed that the vehicle’s right taillight and right brake light failed. At this point, Ke-noyer stopped the vehicle on the basis of the Wall Police Department tip and the equipment violations he observed.

The trial court concluded that in spite of the suspicion raised by the police tip, the facts and circumstances known to Kenoyer at the time of the stop did not justify the stop or the arrest. The trial court’s Conclusion of Law II reads:

The stop by Trooper Kenoyer lacked probable cause in that once he investigated as a result of the Chief of Police’s tip, the situation presented to him did not have numerous independent factors outside of the police tip on which to base his findings for probable cause. Once he made the stop all of the factors that he articulated and the sobriety tests which he normally relied on mitigated against probable cause except for the PBT and thus Trooper Kenoyer lacked probable cause for both the initial stop and for the subsequent arrest.

The trial court distinguished probable cause to stop from probable cause to arrest, but failed to distinguish the standards.

This court recently examined the requisite grounds for a justifiable routine traffic stop in State v. Anderson, 331 N.W.2d 568 (S.D.1983). The Anderson Court cited and quoted a Minnesota case, Marben v. State, Dept. of Public Safety, 294 N.W.2d 697, 699 (Minn.1980), for the proposition that:

[A] police officer may not stop a vehicle without a reasonable basis for doing so. Consistent with the principles set out in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), the officer must have a specific and articulable suspicion of a violation before the stop will be justified.

331 N.W.2d at 570 (emphasis in original).

In Anderson, this court adopted the Minnesota Supreme Court’s definition of the “reasonable suspicion” standard which was taken in part from People v. Ingle, 36 N.Y.2d 413, 369 N.Y.S.2d 67, 330 N.E.2d 39 (1975), in which the New York Court stated:

“It should be emphasized that the factual basis required to support a stop for a ‘routine traffic check’ is minimal .... A1I that is required is that the stop be not the product of mere whim, caprice, or idle curiosity. It is enough if the stop is based upon ‘specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant [the] intrusion[.]’ ”

36 N.Y.2d at 420, 369 N.Y.S.2d at 74, 330 N.E.2d at 44 (citation omitted). The reasonable suspicion standard was thus applied to routine traffic stops in South Dakota, including stops involving suspicion of DWI. Anderson, 331 N.W.2d at 570. This court previously applied the reasonable suspicion standard in other factual situations. See State v. Soft, 329 N.W.2d 128, 129 (S.D.1983); State v. Coe, 286 N.W.2d 340 (S.D.1979); State v. Boardman, 264 N.W.2d 503 (S.D.1978).

The arresting officer in Anderson, an experienced police officer with training in detection of drinking drivers, observed the defendant veer into snow-packed areas of the road and weave back to the clear lane. This activity afforded a specific and articulable reason to stop the defendant’s car to determine whether’ he was driving under the influence of an alcoholic beverage. 331 N.W.2d at 570. The reasonable suspicion standard was also applied in Whitson v. Department of Public Safety, 346 N.W.2d 454 (S.D.1984). The arresting officer in Whitson observed the defendant ignore a “right turn only” lane marker and force two other vehicles to slow down to avoid a collision. This court held that in the absence of a factual basis to support the argument that a stop was random, the argument that it was unlawful is without merit. Id., citing Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 [890]*890L.Ed.2d 660 (1979). Circumstances giving rise to a “ ‘specific and articulable suspicion of a [traffic] violation’,” are also sufficient to justify the investigatory stop of a vehicle. Whitson, 346 N.W.2d 454 at 456 (S.D.1984); Anderson, 331 N.W.2d at 570. Either the Police Chief's tip, even though based on hearsay, or the equipment violation on Anderson’s car was sufficient to justify the stop in this case.

Kenoyer stopped the Scout in a parking lot and he and the driver both emerged from their vehicles. Kenoyer requested a driver’s license and vehicle registration and Anderson produced both immediately. Ke-noyer asked Anderson to seat himself in the patrol car and Kenoyer proceeded to issue Anderson a warning ticket for equipment violations. As Kenoyer wrote the ticket, he detected a strong odor of alcohol. Anderson admitted at that time that he drank the night before. Kenoyer asked Anderson to take a series of four physical sobriety tests in order to determine the state of Anderson’s physical and mental dexterity. Anderson passed by (1) correctly reciting the alphabet, (2) correctly counting from one to ten and back from ten to one, (3) performing the Rhomberg balancing test, and (4) walking heel to toe. Upon Anderson’s satisfactory completion of the physical sobriety tests, Kenoyer asked him to get back into the patrol car and take a preliminary breath test with portable breath testing equipment (PBT).

Dr. Joel Padmore is the State Chemist and Director of the South Dakota State Chemical Laboratory. His agency has provided blood alcohol analyses for law enforcement agencies since 1951 and has provided technical support and training for breath testing devices since the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

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Bluebook (online)
359 N.W.2d 887, 1984 S.D. LEXIS 430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-anderson-sd-1984.