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Motor Vehicle Administration v. Richards10/14/1999
tatute, codified under Maryland Code (1977, 1999 Repl. Vol., 1999 Supp.) §16-205.1 of the Transportation Article.
Pursuant to §16-205.1(f), Respondent requested a hearing to determine whether his driver's license was properly suspended. The Administrative Law Judge (hereinafter "the ALJ") concluded that Respondent's license was suspended properly as a result of his refusal to take the chemical breath test requested by Trooper Quisay: the trooper had reasonable grounds to believe that the Respondent was driving while intoxicated based upon the odor of alcohol and Respondent's poor performance of the field sobriety tests. As to the propriety of the initial stop, the ALJ stated that he had no jurisdiction over the legality of the stop other than to determine whether the stop was made in good faith, which he found to be true in Respondent's case. In that regard, the ALJ stated:
The stop itself was a good faith stop. It doesn't matter whether the stop was made because of suspicion of drinking or not. What matters is that the stop be made just as a good faith stop, in other words, that people aren't stopped just because they're a different color or whatever or that there's some kind of personal animosity or whatever. In this case it's clear that the officer had grounds to believe that there was suspicious activity based on what was going on so he had a grounds to stop the car. Once he did stop the car, then the question becomes did he have a reasonable basis to believe that Mr. Richards had been driving while intoxicated. He notes a moderate odor of alcohol on his breath. He gave him field sobriety tests, which he failed, all of which mean that the officer's process was correct . . . .
The ALJ ordered Respondent's license suspended for 120 days for refusing to take a breath test when properly requested to do so.
On judicial review of the administrative proceeding, the circuit court reversed the judgment of the ALJ and held that the suspension of Respondent's license was improper because Trooper Quisay did not have any justification to stop Respondent's vehicle. In announcing its decision, the court stated:
Well, I guess good faith is equating to articulable suspicion or maybe something less than articulable suspicion, but there is a constitutional right to not be capriciously or arbitrarily pulled over by any police officer and questioned about anything, and there's a freedom of movement, . . . a citizen has a right to be on the public streets . .
. . . ven though perhaps the Administrative Law Judge does not feel he can consider the legality of the stop, I think somewhere the constitution has to come into play and to follow his reasoning, as I say, any officer could stop any other officer, and we have very restrictive procedural matters, particularly when it comes to things like roadblocks and stopping all the people that come down the road.
So I think, on those grounds, there was absolutely no right of Trooper Quisay, at that point. He followed this vehicle far enough that he could have developed any-any articulable suspicion that there was someone driving under the influence of alcohol . . . . So, although we don't get into the legality of the stop too often, I think this is pretty blatant. I don't think there was any justification for the stop of the person in the first place and, of course, anything after that, I think, would not be chargeable to the Defendant. So, I'm gonna reverse the . . . Administrative Law Judge.
The Motor Vehicle Administration (hereinafter "the MVA" or "the State") petitioned this Court for a writ of certiorari to review the circuit court's ruling. We granted certiorari to consider whethe
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