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State v. Villeda7/20/2004
At 2:40 a.m. on 11 August 2001, Trooper C.J. Carroll stopped defendant, a Hispanic male, for a seatbelt violation on Highway 70 near the Highway 15-501 intersection in Durham, North Carolina. Defendant was subsequently arrested for driving while impaired (DWI). Defendant was found guilty in district court and appealed to the superior court on 11 January 2002. On 18 April 2002, defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained during the traffic stop. The motion alleged violations of defendant's rights under the "4th, 5th, and 14th Amendments" to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 19 of the North Carolina Constitution, stating defendant's detention had been motivated "in part by [his] race or national origin." Based on these grounds, defendant also filed a motion to dismiss the DWI charge on 17 September 2002.
At the hearing on defendant's motions, defendant presented the testimony of three attorneys who had come into contact with Trooper Carroll in the past while defending clients arrested for various driving violations. Attorney Kenneth Duke (Duke) testified that in 1998 he had represented a client Charged with DWI. At the first court appearance in that case, Duke ran into Trooper Carroll in the hallway of the courthouse. Duke asked Trooper Carroll the reason for stopping his client, to which the officer replied: "[I]f they're Hispanic and they're driving, they're probably drunk." At the hearing in traffic court, Duke requested and was allowed to question Trooper Carroll about his statement in the hallway. Trooper Carroll denied having made such a statement; but when questioned by the trial court, Trooper Carroll admitted that after having seen Duke's client, a Hispanic, walk into a gas station, he parked his vehicle, turned off his lights, and just watched the gas station. Upon seeing Duke's client walk out of the gas station with beer in his arms, get into his vehicle, and start to drive away, Trooper Carroll stopped him as he was leaving the parking lot. The trial court reacted in outrage to this account of the events and dismissed the DWI charge against Duke's client.
Attorney Frances Miranda Watkins testified at the suppression hearing that she had been present at the hearing for Duke's client and confirmed Trooper Carroll's account of the stop and the trial court's reaction thereto.
Attorney Leonor Childers (Childers) testified she had represented a client, Elvin Javier Ayala, in 2001 charged with DWI and driving with a revoked license. Prior to trial, Childers contacted Trooper Carroll by telephone to question him about his stop of her client. Trooper Carroll explained he had been driving on Miami Boulevard when he observed her client exit the Circle K store with a carton of beer in his hands. Trooper Carroll followed Childers' client, observed a broken tail-light, and ran the vehicle's tags through the computer. The computer search indicated the vehicle was uninsured. Trooper Carroll then stopped Childers' client, issued a ticket for the insurance violation and subsequently arrested him for driving while impaired. When asked by Childers if he had been staking out the Circle K, Trooper Carroll replied that on that particular occasion he had not done so, "but on other occasions he does stake out that Circle K on Miami Boulevard as well as another location on US 70" near LaMaraca, a Hispanic nightclub. Trooper Carroll told Childers he patrols those two areas of Durham "for the purpose of looking for Hispanic males." Childers further inquired, if all her client had done was exit the store with a carton of beer, why did Trooper Carroll stop him. Trooper Carroll responded: "Everyone knows that a Hispanic male buying liquor on a Friday or a Saturday night is probabl
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