 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
STATE v. PIKE5/16/1994
Peter Pike appeals from the judgment entered in the Superior Court (Piscataquis County, Kravchuk, J.) on his conditional guilty plea of violation of the operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor and habitual offender statutes. 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312-B, 2298 (Pamph. 1993). This conditional guilty plea was entered after the court denied Pike's motion to suppress. He asserts that the actions of Milo Reserve Police Officer Robert Kinney, who detained Pike and searched Pike's car for keys while beyond the Milo town line, were unauthorized by Pike claims the Officer lacked probable cause for detention and search, and the resulting evidence obtained should have been suppressed. Finally, Pike claims that the Officer lacked probable cause for the detention and search. Finding no error in the denial of the motion to suppress, we affirm the judgment entered by the trial court.
On October 25, 1991, the Officer was driving into the Town of Milo from the Town of Orneville. While in Milo, the Officer passed a car, going in the opposite direction, which he believed he had stopped earlier for a loud exhaust. The Officer turned his cruiser around, so that he was traveling in the direction of Orneville, and followed the vehicle for approximately 1/4 to 1/2 mile. After realizing that the car was not the one which had been stopped earlier, and after observing nothing suspicious concerning the operation of the vehicle, the Officer pulled his cruiser to the right shoulder of the road in order to reverse his direction. At this point, the Officer's cruiser was approximately 80 feet over the Milo town line in Orneville. The Officer had no intention of stopping the car and had neither activated the cruiser's emergency lighting nor its siren.
The car the Officer was following likewise pulled over to the right shoulder of the road, stopped, and shut off its lights and engine. The Officer saw no one get out of the vehicle. After a moment, the Officer drove his cruiser up behind the auto and initiated the cruiser's emergency lighting. The Officer wanted to see if there was a problem with the driver, or if the auto had broken down.
The Officer walked towards the car and observed a person's head in the middle of the front seat leaning towards the passenger side. The Officer hollered for the occupant, who was Pike, to roll down the driver's side window. After getting no response, he went to the passenger side of the vehicle. The window on this side was already rolled down. The Officer asked Pike if he would get out of the vehicle, and as he spoke with Pike he could smell alcohol on Pike's breath, could see that Pike's eyes were bloodshot and noticed that Pike's speech was slurred.
On request, Pike failed to produce a drivers license or a registration, but did produce a Maine State I.D. Pike also told the Officer that he had not been driving, but rather, a friend was driving who had run into the woods. The Officer looked into the vehicle, saw no keys, and asked Pike where they were. Pike responded that he did not know. The Officer told Pike to stay still while he proceeded to go to his cruiser. At no time did the Officer indicate to Pike that he was under arrest.
Back at the cruiser, the Officer contacted the Piscataquis Sheriff's Office to request a sheriff, with jurisdiction in Orneville, to administer a sobriety test. The Officer also requested that the Sheriff's office run a license check on Pike. After a couple of minutes, the license check revealed that Pike's license was under suspension and that he was an habitual offender. The Officer went back and spoke to Pike. The car door was open and the Officer looked in the car for the keys and found them underneath the front seat.
Page 1 2 3 Maine DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|