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State v. Lafond7/31/2002
Reporter of Decisions
Submitted on Briefs: May 30, 2002
After the denial of his motion to suppress in the District Court (West Bath, Field, J.), and the entry of his conditional guilty plea, Thomas Lafond appeals from a judgment of conviction entered in the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Brennan, J.) for operating under the influence in violation of 29-A M.R.S.A. § 2411(1) (1996), (Class D). Lafond contends that the court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the anonymous tip that motivated the stop was unreliable, which made the stop unlawful under the United States and Maine Constitutions. We disagree and affirm the judgment.
I. BACKGROUND
The following facts are not disputed. Officer Joel Bruce on patrol duty in March 2001 received a call at 11:20 p.m. from his dispatcher advising him that the Bath Police Department had received a call from someone reporting "a possible intoxicated driver operating a green Ford Explorer headed towards Brunswick on the Old Bath Road."
Officer Bruce positioned himself on the Old Bath Road to see if the vehicle came by. While waiting he received another call from his dispatcher to the effect that the vehicle in question was just leaving 48 Theodore Drive--which he knew to be approximately one to two miles down the road from his current position. The call relayed a registration number but "no other information." Bruce then received a transmission from Officer Couture, who had located and was following the vehicle on the Old Bath Road. Bruce stated that Couture "made a comment that his opinion was the vehicle was driving appropriately, but I don't specifically remember it. I ju--I believe he made that comment." Bruce drove five hundred yards down the road from where he was, and backed into Maplewood Manor to wait; two or three minutes after Couture's call he observed two vehicles approaching. When he saw that the lead car was a green Ford Explorer he pulled out behind it; the second car behind him was Couture's police cruiser.
After pulling out behind the Ford, Bruce "noticed that the vehicle swerved to the right and crossed the white fog line. This was a long, flat stretch of road. There was no other vehicles, no other obstructions. I couldn't identify any reason for that vehicle to swerve." Bruce observed that "the two tires were over the line. I'm not sure if they--how far over the line they went." Following further questioning Bruce stated that the two right tires crossed over the line "totally"; the driver "almost immediately . . . pulled back onto the road . . . relatively smooth ." The Ford Explorer was traveling within the speed limit. Upon confirmation of the license plate number Bruce activated his lights to effect a stop.
Officer Bruce reported that: Lafond was the operator of the vehicle; he smelled of intoxicants and admitted to having consumed one beer; he submitted to field sobriety tests and "performed poorly"; he was arrested; he took an Intoxilyzer breath test and the result was a blood alcohol content of 0.18%. The State filed a complaint against Lafond for operating under the influence, and shortly thereafter Lafond filed a motion to suppress. After the court denied the motion, Lafond entered a conditional guilty plea and filed this appeal.
II. DISCUSSION
For an investigatory traffic stop to be constitutionally sound under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 5 of the Maine Constitution, the officer must have, at the time of the stop, an "articulable suspicion that criminal conduct has taken place, is occurring, or imminently will occur, and the officer's assessment of the exi
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