State v. Isaac D. Taylor

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedJuly 30, 2021
Docket2019AP000797-CR
StatusUnpublished

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

Bluebook
State v. Isaac D. Taylor, (Wis. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. July 30, 2021 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2019AP797-CR Cir. Ct. No. 2017CF1834

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT II

STATE OF WISCONSIN,

PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT,

V.

ISAAC D. TAYLOR,

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Waukesha County: MARIA S. LAZAR, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Neubauer, C.J., Gundrum and Davis, JJ.

¶1 GUNDRUM, J. Isaac Taylor appeals from a judgment of conviction for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (OWI), fifth offense, contending the circuit court erred in denying his motion to suppress the evidence flowing from the traffic stop performed on him. Taylor asserts that the Waukesha No. 2019AP797-CR

police officer who performed the stop lacked reasonable suspicion. For the following reasons, we disagree and affirm.

Background

¶2 Following the stop, Taylor was arrested and charged with OWI, fifth offense, operating after revocation, and operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration (PAC), fifth offense. He moved to suppress the evidence derived from the stop on the basis that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to perform the stop. An evidentiary hearing was held on the motion, at which the arresting officer was the only witness to testify. His relevant and undisputed testimony is as follows.

¶3 Shortly before 9:00 p.m. on December 25, 2017, the officer was on patrol in his squad car when he drove by an apartment complex “known for its drug trafficking.” As he approached the area of the complex, he observed a van parked at the curb across from it and a female standing outside the driver’s side window who appeared to be speaking with the driver of the van, Taylor. She looked towards the approaching officer and then “turned and went back into the apartment complex and [Taylor] proceeded to travel southbound” past the officer. The officer observed the rear windows and believed them to be “excessively tinted,” so he turned his squad car around and attempted to catch up to the van “to run its plate.”

¶4 When the officer caught up to the van, Taylor pulled it into a private driveway, and as he did so, the officer was able to “get the plate.” The officer proceeded past the van, turned his squad car around and parked about a “half block”/“like three houses” down on the opposite side of the street, facing the van so that the officer “could keep eyes on it.” The officer sat in the squad car and

2 No. 2019AP797-CR

watched the van, which sat in the driveway for “maybe two minutes,” during which time no one entered or exited the van or the house at that address. Taylor then backed the van out of the driveway and proceeded in the opposite direction from which he had been heading, away from the officer. The officer followed Taylor for a brief time before performing the traffic stop at issue in this appeal.

¶5 Following testimony, the circuit court ruled that the officer had reasonable suspicion that the windows were unlawfully tinted and thus had reasonable suspicion to perform the traffic stop.1 Taylor eventually pled to OWI, fifth offense, the PAC charge was dismissed, and the operating while revoked charge was dismissed but read in. Taylor now appeals, challenging the court’s ruling on his suppression motion.

Discussion

¶6 As before the circuit court, Taylor asserts on appeal that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to perform the traffic stop. We disagree.

1 The officer testified that he performed the traffic stop because he believed the windows on Taylor’s van were tinted darker than allowed by law. The circuit court subsequently held that the stop was lawful because the officer had reasonable suspicion that the tint violated the law. Not surprisingly then, Taylor focuses his appeal on this holding. We, however, affirm the circuit court on other reasonable suspicion grounds, as we may do. See State v. Holt, 128 Wis. 2d 110, 124-25, 382 N.W.2d 679 (Ct. App. 1985). When considering whether reasonable suspicion existed, “we apply an objective standard in reviewing the actions of law enforcement officers. Thus, it is the circumstances that govern, not the officer’s subjective belief.” State v. Buchanan, 178 Wis. 2d 441, 447 n.2, 504 N.W.2d 400 (Ct. App. 1993). Ultimately, we ask whether, knowing what the officer here knew at the time he performed the stop, a reasonable officer would have reasonably suspected that criminal activity was afoot. See State v. Zamzow, 2016 WI App 7, ¶14, 366 Wis. 2d 562, 874 N.W.2d 328 (2015); see also State v. Lefler, 2013 WI App 22, ¶11, 346 Wis. 2d 220, 827 N.W.2d 650 (“We decline to adopt the arguments advanced by either party or the legal conclusion of the circuit court. Instead, we find a separate reason justifying the search by the officer ….”).

3 No. 2019AP797-CR

¶7 When, as here, the facts are undisputed, we review de novo whether those facts satisfy the constitutional standard, in this case reasonable suspicion. See State v. Anagnos, 2012 WI 64, ¶21, 341 Wis. 2d 576, 815 N.W.2d 675. As we have stated:

A law enforcement officer may detain an individual for investigative purposes if reasonable suspicion … of criminal activity exists. Reasonable suspicion exists if, under the totality of the circumstances, “the facts of the case would warrant a reasonable police officer, in light of his or her training and experience, to suspect that the individual has committed, was committing, or is about to commit a crime.” Reasonable suspicion must be based on more than an officer’s “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch.’” An officer “‘must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant’ the intrusion of the stop.”

State v. Rose, 2018 WI App 5, ¶14, 379 Wis. 2d 664, 907 N.W.2d 463 (2017) (citations omitted). Our supreme court also has explained:

[S]uspicious conduct by its very nature is ambiguous, and the [principal] function of the investigative stop is to quickly resolve that ambiguity. Therefore, if any reasonable inference of wrongful conduct can be objectively discerned, notwithstanding the existence of other innocent inferences that could be drawn, the officers have the right to temporarily detain the individual for the purpose of inquiry.

State v. Young, 2006 WI 98, ¶21, 294 Wis. 2d 1, 717 N.W.2d 729 (alterations in original; citation omitted).

¶8 To recap, at around 9 p.m., the officer observed Taylor parked across from an apartment complex “known for its drug trafficking.” Taylor appeared to be engaging with a female at his driver’s side window, but when she saw the officer approaching in his squad car, she left Taylor and went into the complex, and Taylor drove away from the area. When the officer turned his squad car

4 No. 2019AP797-CR

around, followed Taylor, and eventually caught up to him, Taylor turned into a private driveway. When the officer passed by, turned around, parked and watched Taylor from a short distance away, Taylor just sat in the driveway for “maybe two minutes,” neither exiting his vehicle nor conducting any sort of business at that address, before backing out and driving in the opposite direction, away from the officer.

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Isaac D. Taylor, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-isaac-d-taylor-wisctapp-2021.