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State v. Sparr11/23/2004
Crystal R. Sparr appeals the decision of the Lancaster County District Court affirming the Lancaster County Court's order finding Sparr guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and sentencing her to 12 months' probation. We address the legality of a police officer's detention of Sparr, an "innocent by-stander" at a crime investigation scene, followed by her arrest.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
On December 6, 2002, at about 1:10 a.m., in the area of 11th and F Streets in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sparr was dropped off at her parked vehicle by her friend Kristina Mahoney. As Sparr entered her vehicle, which was legally parked in a residential area, Officer Daren Reynolds of the Lincoln Police Department stopped Mahoney's vehicle, northbound on 11th Street, for im-peding traffic. In making the traffic stop, Reynolds activated his cruiser's overhead lights and positioned his cruiser offcenter to the left of Mahoney's vehicle by half a vehicle's width and 15 feet behind Mahoney's vehicle. Sparr's vehicle was in the parking lane directly to the east of the cruiser. Reynolds approached Mahoney's vehicle, asked her for her license and registration, informed her of the purpose for the stop, and then returned to his cruiser. He then repositioned his cruiser farther to the left of Mahoney's vehicle because he wanted to capture with the cruiser's video camera the field sobriety test he intended to administer to Mahoney, having smelled alcohol on her breath. As he exited his cruiser to return to Mahoney, he observed Sparr's vehicle move backward about 3 to 5 feet. He then pointed at Sparr and told her, "'No.'" Sparr stopped her vehicle and waited. Reynolds had Mahoney exit her vehicle, and then he conducted a number of field sobriety tests which led to Mahoney's arrest for suspicion of DUI. This entire process took 10 minutes.
Reynolds then approached Sparr's vehicle and asked her for her license and registration because she had been a passenger in Mahoney's vehicle; the information on those documents would be placed on the report of Mahoney's arrest as a matter of standard procedure. Upon contacting Sparr, Reynolds immediately smelled a "strong odor of alcohol" on her breath. He then told her that she may be too drunk to drive and that another officer would be called to test her. Sparr was subsequently arrested for DUI.
PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Sparr was charged in Lancaster County Court for DUI. Sparr filed a motion to suppress, a hearing was held, and the county court overruled the motion. The court reasoned that Sparr "was not detained for the purpose of investigating her for a crime, so therefore the subsequent evidence gathered against her once she had personal contact with . . . Reynolds was not in violation of her constitutional rights." The case proceeded to trial, where Sparr made a continuing objection to any evidence gathered after her arrest due to an unlawful detention, as argued in the motion to suppress. The court overruled the objection and found Sparr guilty of DUI. She was sentenced to 12 months' probation.
Sparr appealed her conviction and sentence, as well as the county court's order denying the motion to suppress, to the district court. The district court found that the county court had properly overruled the motion to suppress, and it affirmed the county court's judgment and sentence. Sparr timely appeals.
ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR
Sparr asserts that the "district court committed reversible error in affirming the county court's overruling of [her] motion to suppress and thus allowing into evidence at the trial of this matter, over [her] objection, any evidence seized by law enforcement" because such seizure was in violation of article I,
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