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State v. Lezotte2/18/2005
On August 17, 2003, Officer Randy Huskey of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency was patrolling the Carson Island/Smokey Branch Area of Tellico Lake by boat when he observed the defendant, who was on shore with a can of beer in his hand. The officer traveled to the Tellico Harbor Marina, docked, and then drove to the entrance of the Carson Island boat ramp, where he met Wildlife Officer Joe Pike. As the two officers awaited the arrival of Officer Corey Russell, the defendant, driving a pick-up truck, slowly approached them on a gravel road. According to Officer Huskey, a fishing rod in the back of the truck was visible. When he saw coolers in the rear of the vehicle and observed that a child passenger was not wearing a seat belt, he directed the defendant to stop.
At the suppression hearing, Officer Huskey, whose interest was piqued when he saw the defendant with the beer, testified that he stopped the defendant not only to check whether he had a fishing license but also because the child was not properly restrained. The marina was known to the officer as a "problem area" for unruly behavior. According to Officer Huskey, when the defendant opened the door he smelled of alcohol and had to use both hands to steady himself. Officer Huskey saw that the child was small, about two years of age, and did not have any restraining device. The defendant claimed that he had not been fishing and maintained that the officer could not have seen the fishing pole in the back of his truck. The officer, however, maintained that the primary reason for the stop was to determine whether the defendant had a fishing license . The stop eventually evolved into an arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol.
After listening to an audio tape of the preliminary hearing and considering the evidence submitted during the suppression hearing, the trial court concluded that the officer had actually begun his investigation as a result of seeing the defendant with a beer in his hand in "a trouble area . . . a problem island." The trial court concluded that Officer Huskey had contacted two other officers to assist in the investigation which, in the observations of the trial court, "had nothing to do . . . with fishing." Affording little credence to testimony regarding the presence of the fishing pole and the basis for a license compliance check, the trial court determined that the officers nevertheless had a valid basis for an investigatory stop because Officer Huskey had seen the defendant drinking and, minutes later, driving his vehicle. It was the trial court's observation that if an officer knows "somebody's drinking and they're in a vehicle, but [does not] know to what extent," there is a valid reason for an investigatory stop. The trial court chose not to address whether "someone on a ramp at a fishing dock with fishing tackle in the back of vehicle and coolers can't be stopped and asked for license."
In this appeal, the defendant argues that his having been seen with a beer in his hand was an insufficient basis for an investigative stop. He also contends that the presence of a fishing pole in his vehicle is not an indication that he had been fishing, thereby warranting a stop, and that any reference to the lack of restraint for the child passenger in his vehicle was pretextual. In response, the state argues that because Officer Huskey saw the defendant with a beer in his hand minutes before the stop and because there had been reports of misbehavior in the general area, an investigatory stop was warranted. In the alternative, the state, citing Hughes v. State, 259 S.W.2d 527 (Tenn. 1953), and Monroe v. State, 253 S.W.2d 734 (Tenn. 1952), contends that wildlife officers may make investigatory
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