State v. Partin

346 Or. App. 455
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided January 7, 2026·No. A182074·Unpublished·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

No. 10 January 7, 2026 455

This is a nonprecedential memorandum opinion pursuant to ORAP 10.30 and may not be cited except as provided in ORAP 10.30(1).

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF OREGON

STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

ALANNA NICOLE PARTIN,

Defendant-Appellant. Benton County Circuit Court 18CR80451; A182074

Joan E. Demarest, Judge. Submitted December 19, 2025. Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, and Meredith Allen, Deputy Public Defender, Oregon Public Defense Commission, filed the brief for appellant.

Alanna Nicole Partin filed a supplemental brief pro se. Dan Rayfield, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General, and Greg Rios, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent.

Before Tookey, Presiding Judge, Lagesen, Chief Judge, and Jacquot, Judge.

LAGESEN, C. J. Affirmed.

456 State v. Partin

LAGESEN, C. J. Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for felon in possession of a firearm (FIP), ORS 166.270 (Count 1); interference with a peace officer (IPO), ORS 162.247, (Count 2); unlawful possession of a firearm, ORS 166.250, (Count 3); and failure to carry or present a license, ORS 807.570 (Count 4). She raises eight assignments of error in her brief submitted through counsel and an additional four assignments of error in her pro se supplemental brief, three of which, in effect, expand on arguments raised through counsel. We affirm.

First Assignment of Error: Motion to Suppress The charges against defendant arose out of a traffic stop for an obscured license plate and inadequate licenseplate lighting, during which defendant refused to provide her driver’s license to the officer who stopped her. Upon defendant ’s refusal to provide her license, the officer stated that she was under arrest for failure to carry or present a license, ORS 807.570, and ordered her out of the car. When defendant did not comply with the order, the officer attempted to open the car door and observed defendant make a “quick, furtive movement” toward the lower door pocket, at which point the officer decided to arrest petitioner for IPO based on her failure to comply with his directive to get out of the car. Ultimately, officers removed defendant from the car through the car window. Officers then searched the car and recovered a revolver.

Defendant moved to suppress evidence of the revolver. The trial court denied the motion. Among other points, it concluded that the search of defendant’s car and resulting seizure of the revolver were justified as a search incident to defendant’s arrest for IPO. In so doing, it rejected defendant’s contention that officers unconstitutionally extended her detention in connection with her failure to present a license.

On appeal, defendant assigns error to that determination . She does not dispute that that if her arrest for IPO was valid, then officers permissibly searched the car as a search incident to the arrest. Instead, pointing to State v.

Nonprecedential Memo Op: 346 Or App 455 (2026) 457

Middleton, 294 Or App 596, 432 P3d 337 (2018), defendant’s theory is that the officers were required to ask for her name or date of birth before arresting her for failing to present a license, that they impermissibly extended her arrest by not doing so before asking her to step out of the car, making the order to step out of the car an unlawful order. Accordingly, “[b]y not simply asking for the information necessary to promptly cite and release defendant, [the officer] extended the duration of the detention” which “exceeded the limits of a detention under ORS 807.540(4) and unlawfully extended the duration of the stop under Article I, section 9.”

The state responds that Middleton does not stand for the proposition that officers were required to ask defendant for her name or date of birth before arresting her for her failure to present a license and that the officers otherwise acted lawfully in directing defendant to get out of the car. Accordingly, the state asserts, officers lawfully arrested defendant for IPO, and lawfully searched the car incident to defendant’s arrest.

Accepting the trial court’s supported factual findings and reviewing for legal error, State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 361 Or 163, 165-66, 389 P3d 1121 (2017), we agree with the state. Contrary to defendant’s argument, nothing in Middleton stands for the proposition that an officer must ask a person for their identifying information before arresting the person for failure to carry and present a license. It was undisputed in Middleton that the defendant had been validly arrested for failure to present her license. Rather, the issue was different: whether the officers had unlawfully prolonged that undisputedly valid arrest when they prolonged her detention after having sufficiently verified her identity. 294 Or App at 604. We concluded that, having verified the defendant’s identity by way of a records check with information the defendant had provided, the officers unlawfully prolonged the arrest when instead of promptly citing and releasing, they further detained the defendant while they unnecessarily waited for photo identification. Id. Here, by contrast, it is undisputed that the officer ordered defendant out of the car for the purpose of effectuating her arrest for failure to present a license, an offense that the 458 State v. Partin

officer undisputedly had probable cause to believe defendant had committed. The officer’s order therefore was lawful and defendant’s failure to comply with the officer’s order gave the officer probable cause to arrest her for IPO, because ORS 162.247 prohibits “intentionally or knowingly act[ing] in a manner that prevents, or attempts to prevent, the peace officer * * * from performing the lawful duties of the officer with regards to * * * a criminal investigation.” ORS 162.247(1). Upon defendant’s arrest, officers permissibly searched the car incident to defendant’s arrest. Defendant’s first assignment of error fails for that reason; as noted, defendant does not contest that the search was a lawful search incident to her arrest for IPO if the officer permissibly issued the initial order to exit the car based on defendant’s failure to present her license.

In a related pro se assignment of error, defendant asserts that suppression is warranted because, in her view, the officers used excessive force in arresting her and unlawfully required her to perform field sobriety tests. Because defendant did not preserve that contention and does not seek plain error review, we do not reach it. See State v. Ardizzone, 270 Or App 666, 673, 349 P3d 597, rev den, 358 Or 145 (2015) (explaining that an appellate court will not ordinarily proceed to the question of plain error unless an appellant has explicitly asked it to do so).

Second Assignment of Error: Speedy Trial Defendant next assigns error to the trial court’s denial of her motion to dismiss for lack of a speedy trial under Oregon statutes, the Oregon Constitution and the United States Constitution. We affirm the denial of the statutory speedy trial motion because the trial court denied it both as untimely and on the merits, and defendant has not challenged the timeliness ruling on appeal. “That unchallenged conclusion is an independent basis for affirmation.” State v. Rivera-Negrete, 233 Or App 96, 102, 224 P3d 702 (2009).

As for the denial of defendant’s constitution-based speedy trial motion, we review for legal error, accepting the trial court’s supported factual findings. State v. Krieger,

Nonprecedential Memo Op: 346 Or App 455 (2026) 459

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State v. Partin
346 Or. App. 455 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2026)