State v. Veazey

662 S.E.2d 683, 191 N.C. App. 181, 2008 N.C. App. LEXIS 1228
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJuly 1, 2008
DocketCOA07-1569
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 662 S.E.2d 683 (State v. Veazey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Veazey, 662 S.E.2d 683, 191 N.C. App. 181, 2008 N.C. App. LEXIS 1228 (N.C. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

McGEE, Judge.

The record in this case shows that around 5:00 p.m. on 1 January 2006, Trooper F.K. Carroll (Trooper Carroll) of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol set up a drivers’ license checkpoint on U.S. Highway 311 near Walnut Cove, North Carolina. Trooper Carroll set up the checkpoint with another trooper but could not remember the name of the second trooper. At approximately 5:40 p.m., a vehicle driven by Thomas Marland Veazey (Defendant) approached the checkpoint. Trooper Carroll asked Defendant for his driver’s license and registration. Defendant produced an out-of-state driver’s license, although his vehicle was registered in North Carolina. During this encounter, Trooper Carroll detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from Defendant’s vehicle, and he saw that Defendant’s eyes were red and glassy. Trooper Carroll instructed Defendant to drive his vehicle to the shoulder of the highway. Trooper Carroll then performed a [183]*183sobriety test on Defendant and, after determining that Defendant was impaired, arrested Defendant for driving while impaired. A chemical analysis later determined that Defendant’s blood-alcohol level at the time of his arrest was 0.08.

Prior to trial, Defendant filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained by Trooper Carroll as a result of the checkpoint. Defendant argued that the checkpoint violated his rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

The trial court heard Defendant’s motion on 26 February 2007. Trooper Carroll was the sole witness who testified at the hearing. Following Trooper Carroll’s testimony, the trial court made the following oral findings and conclusions:

[The Court is] going to deny the Motion to Suppress, and finds that the license checkpoint was not an unreasonable detention; and therefore, was valid under the Fourth Amendment. The officers had complied with the necessities of setting up a checkpoint. There were two officers who participated in this checkpoint.... The trooper checked with his supervisor and verified that he was going to have a — set up a checkpoint. He’s not met with any objection. Said the purpose of the checkpoint was to — for license checks, make sure persons were observing the motor vehicle statutes, State of North Carolina. It was set up in a safe place, systematically done. They chose to stop every vehicle. And that upon stopping [Defendant] in this case the officers, the officer observed a strong odor of alcohol. And he further investigated the matter to make a determination as to whether or not [Defendant] was operating a vehicle while impaired.
Court finds those facts and finds as a matter of law that the license checkpoint was not an unreasonable detention, and was valid under the Fourth Amendment.

The trial court did not reduce its order to writing at that time.

Defendant pleaded no contest to driving while impaired on 5 June 2007, and he preserved his right to appeal the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress. The trial court then sentenced Defendant to a term of sixty days in prison, but suspended Defendant’s sentence and placed him on probation for a period of twelve months. Defendant then gave oral notice of appeal from the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress.

[184]*184The trial court issued a final written order denying Defendant’s motion to suppress on 19 November 2007, more than five months after Defendant’s plea and the trial court’s entry of judgment. However, in contrast to the trial court’s prior oral findings of fact, the trial court’s written findings characterized Trooper Carroll’s testimony as containing admissions that the checkpoint was a “generalized checking station,” and that Trooper Carroll had significant discretion regarding the operation of the checkpoint. Despite these findings, however, the trial court concluded:

1. That Trooper Carroll complied with the requirements for conducting a checking station.

2. The evidence obtained need not be suppressed.

The trial court aiso voided Defendant’s prior oral notice of appeal on the ground that it was entered prior to the trial court’s entry of a final written order denying Defendant’s motion to suppress. Defendant filed a new notice of appeal on 19 November 2007 from the trial court’s final written order denying his motion to suppress.

I.

The United States Supreme Court has long held that the Fourth Amendment reasonableness standard usually requires that a search or seizure be based on either consent or individualized suspicion of the person to be searched or seized. See, e.g., Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20-21, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889, 905-06 & n.18 (1968). However, the Supreme Court also has held that “the Fourth Amendment imposes no irreducible requirement of such suspicion,” and has recognized certain limited exceptions to the general rule requiring individualized suspicion. United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 561, 49 L. Ed. 2d 1116, 1130 (1976). For example, police may briefly detain vehicles at a roadblock checkpoint without individualized suspicion, so long as the purpose of the checkpoint is legitimate and the checkpoint itself is reasonable. See id. at 561-62, 49 L. Ed. 2d at 1130-31 (upholding the constitutionality of a checkpoint located near the United States-Mexico border and designed to locate undocumented persons); see also Illinois v. Lidster, 540 U.S. 419, 427-28, 157 L. Ed. 2d 843, 852-53 (2004) (holding that police did not violate the Fourth Amendment by conducting a checkpoint aimed at gathering information regarding an earlier crime); Michigan State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444, 455, 110 L. Ed. 2d 412, 423 (1990) (holding that police complied with constitutional requirements in conducting a checkpoint designed to find intoxicated drivers).

[185]*185When considering a challenge to a checkpoint, the reviewing court must undertake a two-part inquiry to determine whether the checkpoint meets constitutional requirements. First, the court must determine the primary programmatic purpose of the checkpoint. City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, 531 U.S. 32, 40-42, 148 L. Ed. 2d 333, 343 (2000). In Edmond, the United States Supreme Court distinguished between checkpoints with a primary purpose related to roadway safety and checkpoints with a primary purpose related to general crime control. According to the Court, checkpoints primarily aimed at addressing immediate highway safety threats can justify the intrusions on drivers’ Fourth Amendment privacy interests occasioned by suspicionless stops. Id. at 41-43, 148 L. Ed. 2d at 343-44; see, e.g., Sitz, 496 U.S. at 455, 110 L. Ed. 2d at 423 (upholding a checkpoint with a primary purpose of finding intoxicated drivers); Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 663, 59 L. Ed. 2d 660, 673-74 (1979) (suggesting that a checkpoint with a primary purpose of checking drivers’ licenses and vehicle registrations would be permissible under the Fourth Amendment).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
662 S.E.2d 683, 191 N.C. App. 181, 2008 N.C. App. LEXIS 1228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-veazey-ncctapp-2008.