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State v. Roberts3/25/1999
APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Twenty-First Judicial District, In and for the County of Ravalli, The Honorable Jeffrey H. Langton, Judge presiding.
Submitted on Briefs: November 12, 1998
. Leonard Leroy Roberts (Roberts) was charged by information on July 22, 1997, with the offenses of (1) Driving or Being in Actual Physical Control of a Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol (Sixth Offense), a felony, and (2) Driving Without a Valid Driver's License, a misdemeanor. Roberts filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained incident and subsequent to the investigatory stop that gave rise to his arrest. The State of Montana (the State) appeals from the order of the Twenty-First Judicial District Court, Ravalli County, granting Roberts' motion to suppress. We reverse and remand.
. We restate the issue on appeal: Did the District Court err in suppressing the State's evidence on the ground that the arresting officer lacked a particularized suspicion of wrongdoing to stop Roberts' motor vehicle?
Factual and Procedural Background
. Hearing loud and angry voices outside her house at 105 Daly Ave. in Hamilton on the evening of July 4, 1997, Davie Joan Neville (Neville) peeked out her window to investigate. In the front yard of the house next door at 107 Daly Ave., Neville observed that two men, whose movements were unsteady and whose speech was slurred, were engaged in a heated exchange. This conflict culminated with one man attempting to hit the other man with a piece of rebar. The sloppy speech and mannerisms of the two men led Neville to believe that they were extremely intoxicated. Neville then observed the two men climb into a white pickup truck and leave the house next door, heading towards downtown Hamilton. Just before 9:00 p.m. on the evening of July 4, 1997, Neville called the 911 dispatcher in Hamilton "to report a guy that is drunk, just left the driveway" of 107 Daly Ave. in a pickup truck.
. The information given by Neville to the 911 dispatcher included: Neville's description of the truck as a white Ford pickup, license plate number 13T-76V; Neville's observation that the truck, which contained two male occupants who had been engaged in a "big fight" at 107 Daly Ave., appeared to be traveling towards downtown Hamilton; Neville's belief that the man driving the pickup, whom she could not identify by name or description, was "drunk" and "shouldn't be driving" because he "can barely walk"; and Neville's name, address, and phone number.
. Shortly after Neville's call, at 8:57 p.m., the 911 dispatcher sent out an "attempt to locate" bulletin to all police on patrol that evening. Overhearing this dispatch, on-duty Hamilton police officer, Ryan Oster (Officer Oster), responded. Officer Oster positively identified the white Ford truck approximately three minutes later, around 9:00 p.m., parked in downtown Hamilton. Although the pickup was unoccupied, Officer Oster noted that the truck was parked across the street from the Rainbow Bar. At that time, Officer Oster did not investigate the complaint further, but continued on his routine patrol.
. Approximately 38 minutes later, at about 9:38 p.m., Officer Oster again passed by the Rainbow Bar and observed that the white pickup truck was no longer parked across the street. As he continued on his routine patrol, however, Officer Oster spotted the truck about a block-and-a-half away traveling back towards Daly Ave. Because Officer Oster could not identify who was driving the pickup from that distance, he decided to "catch up with the vehicle" and watch for signs of drunk driving. Officer Oster, a veteran of over 100 investigatory traffic stops, did no
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