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State v. Hicks9/11/2001
st licenses and that some officers questioned drivers further about matters unrelated to the license check.
The appellant also called Lieutenant Hill to testify as to the operation of the roadblock. Lieutenant Hill stated that he was ordered to supervise the roadblock during his shift by his troop leader, Lieutenant Phillips, and that he explained to the other officers already present that the purpose of the roadblock was to check for drivers' licenses. Despite having "supervisory" authority over the operation of the roadblock, Lieutenant Hill testified that he was unaware that the other officers on the scene were not following the specific requirements of General Order 410; that he did not know why the Red Bank or Chattanooga officers were present or who called them; and that he was unaware of the actions of certain officers questioning drivers about the "North Chattanooga rapist." Lieutenant Hill also confirmed that he did not participate in the appellant's stop or arrest.
After hearing the testimony, the trial court granted the appellant's motion to suppress. The State appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which reversed the trial court's decision. The intermediate court held that drivers' license roadblocks are generally permissible under the Tennessee Constitution, and a majority of the court further held that the particular roadblock at issue in this case was operated in a reasonable manner. In dissent, Judge Tipton wrote that because an officer other than a state trooper stopped the appellant's car, the drivers' license checkpoint was statutorily illegal. He further reasoned that because the statute represented a legislative declaration that such stops were unreasonable, the trial court's suppression of the evidence should be affirmed.
The appellant then requested permission to appeal to this Court, which we granted, on the following three issues: (1) whether drivers' license roadblocks are unconstitutional per se; (2) whether the roadblock in this case was unconstitutional for its failure to follow the guidelines established by our decision in State v. Downey, 945 S.W.2d 102 (Tenn. 1997); and (3) whether the roadblock was unlawful because of its delegation of statutory authority to local police officers to stop motorists for a license check. We hold that the State has failed to establish a sufficiently compelling interest justifying the need to maintain drivers' license roadblocks and that the particular roadblock in this case failed to comply with the standards set forth in Downey. The judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals is reversed.
STANDARD OF APPELLATE REVIEW
When reviewing a trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law on a motion to suppress evidence, we are guided by the standard of review set forth in State v. Odom, 928 S.W.2d 18 (Tenn. 1996). Under this standard, "a trial court's findings of fact in a suppression hearing will be upheld unless the evidence preponderates otherwise." Id. at 23. However, when the trial court does not set forth its findings of fact upon the record of the proceedings, we will decide on our own where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Fields v. State, 40 S.W.3d 450, 457 n.5 (Tenn. 2001); see also Ganzevoort v. Russell, 949 S.W.2d 293, 296 (Tenn. 1997). As in all cases on appeal, "the prevailing party in the trial court is afforded the `strongest legitimate view of the evidence and all reasonable and legitimate inferences that may be drawn from that evidence.'" See State v. Carter, 16 S.W.3d 762, 765 (Tenn. 2000) (quoting State v. Keith, 978 S.W.2d 861, 864 (Tenn. 1998)). Finally, we review the trial court's conclusions of law under a de novo standard without according any presumption of c
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Tennessee DUI Attorneys
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