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State v. Nelson11/9/2004
er, Deputy Matkin was thwarted in his multiple attempts to identify the passenger by false answers to his questions. However, in no more than eight minutes, Officer Baiamonte arrived at the scene, and observed Nelson's appearance and the smell of alcohol from the beer spill in the interior of Nelson's vehicle. These served to confirm Deputy Matkin's suspicions and properly established a separate particularized suspicion that Nelson was impaired, and further led to Officer Baiamonte's administration of field sobriety tests, Nelson's arrest for DUI, and the search of the vehicle where methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia were found. In fact, one discovery led to another, and "took on the quality of an escalating situation in which the additional information gave rise to further suspicions and enlarged the scope of the investigation to that of a possible DUI." Henderson , 22. Thus, the stop was appropriately extended for the DUI investigation, and, concomitantly, the time "necessary to effectuate the purpose of the stop" was appropriately extended. Section 46-5-403, MCA.
Moreover, this Court has never established specific time parameters to which an officer is to adhere to when conducting an investigative stop. Here, the entire investigation, sobriety tests, and arrest of Nelson and his passenger took approximately 24 minutes. We cannot conclude that this time was excessive. We have noted that, while law enforcement officers conducting an investigation or investigatory stop should be guided by principles of reasonableness, "effective law enforcement requires some latitude to be given to investigating officers to react to and follow up on their observations." State v. Sharp (1985), 217 Mont. 40, 47, 702 P.2d 959, 963; also see State v. Roberts , 1999 MT 59, 25, 293 Mont. 476, 25, 977 P.2d 974, 25. The length of this stop was not improper.
Affirmed.
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