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MILLER v. STATE4/15/1987
Appellant, David Miller, was convicted of driving while intoxicated. His sole ground for reversal on appeal is that the trial court erred in finding that the arresting officer had sufficient probable cause to stop him as he was driving. We find no error on the trial court's part, and, accordingly, we affirm its judgment.
Appellant was arrested in the early morning hours of November 9, 1985. Officers of the Jacksonville Police Department had received a call concerning a fight in progress with weapons on a nightclub parking lot. Patrolman Charles Jenkins arrived at the scene shortly afterward and was told by a nightclub employee that the two men involved in the fight had left five or six minutes earlier. According to the employee, one of the men was very drunk, had been using a long club on his opponent, and had left in a black Ford pickup truck. Jenkins then radioed to the other police units working in Jacksonville at the time to look for "a black Ford pickup truck, with one white male."
About two or three minutes after hearing the broadcast, Sergeant John Clark saw a black Ford pickup truck about three-fourths of a mile from the site of the nightclub. Clark radioed for a backup before stopping the vehicle. While following the pickup, Sergeant Clark observed the driver negotiate several curves in an erratic manner and travel through one sharp curve down the center of the road.
In the meantime, Officer John Wooley had also heard the call and saw the black pickup run through a stop sign. As he was pulling out in pursuit, he noticed Sergeant Clark's patrol car move in behind the truck. Officer Wooley then backed up Sergeant Clark, who turned on his blue lights and stopped the vehicle. Sergeant Clark approached the pickup from the driver's side and saw appellant, from whom a strong odor of intoxicants came, sitting in the driver's seat. When appellant got out of the passenger compartment, as requested, he stumbled to the back and held on to the vehicle for support. Without administering a
field sobriety test, Sergeant Clark placed appellant under arrest for DWI first offense and transported him to the police department. Following a municipal court conviction, appellant appealed to Pulaski County Circuit Court, where he was found guilty and sentenced to ten days in jail with one day credited and nine days suspended, fined $250, and assessed court costs. From that decision this appeal arises.
Appellant argues that, under Hill v. State, 275 Ark. 71, 628 S.W.2d 284, cert. denied, 459 U.S. 882 (1982), and this court's decision in Van Patten v. State, 16 Ark. App. 83, 697 S.W.2d 919 (1985), the trial court erred in finding that Sergeant Clark had sufficient probable cause to make an investigatory stop of his vehicle. It is his contention that the totality of the circumstances test, as enunciated by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Hill, was not satisfied by the circumstances of the present case.
Recently, in Reeves v. State, 20 Ark. App. 17, 722 S.W.2d 880 (1987), we had occasion to review the line of cases dealing with investigatory stops. We noted that Fourth Amendment protection "against unreasonable searches and seizures" extends to persons driving down the street. It has been held, however, as we observed in Reeves, that, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, police may stop persons on the street or in their vehicles in the absence of either a warrant or probable cause under limited circumstances. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968); Leopold v. State, 15 Ark. App. 292, 692 S.W.2d 780 (1985). One of those limited circumstances involves the investigatory stop. Reeves, 20 Ark. App. at 21.
[2-5] The test to be applied in determining whether
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