Jeffrey C. McCarty, of Wardsville, should not have been convicted in 2015 of being a minor in possession of intoxicating liquor, a three-judge appeals court panel in Missouri ruled last week, because the traffic stop that led to finding the alcohol wasn't legal.
Cole County Associate Circuit Judge Thomas Sodergren found McCarty, now 22, guilty following an Aug. 25, 2015, bench trial, and sentenced him on Oct. 6, 2015, to a $300 fine, $418.50 in court costs and a mandate to complete an Alcohol and Drug Education Program within 90 days.
In his appeal, McCarty's attorneys - Daniel Hunt and Anji Gandhi - argued Cole County Deputy Arthur Brown had no "reasonable suspicion that McCarty was involved in illegal activity" to justify stopping McCarty's car on April 12, 2014, so anything found inside the car after that stop should not have been used as evidence in the trial.
About 4:30 a.m. that Saturday, Brown was sent to a "loud disturbance" in a parking lot outside an apartment complex in the 3000 block of Cassidy Road.
An anonymous caller had reported a male and female were having a verbal argument, the appeals court noted in its eight-page decision.
But when Brown reached the apartments about 10 minutes later, he found nothing.
"He found no one outside nor at the specific address where the call came from," Judge Cynthia L. Martin wrote for the appeals court panel. "Corporal Brown did not stop to knock on any doors and did not talk to anyone at the scene.
"Corporal Brown testified during the suppression hearing that he did not observe anything that would confirm two people had actually been arguing outside of the apartment complex."
But he had passed a car with two people in it as he approached the apartments.
So, he testified, "Sometimes people leave the area - so that was just - it was kind of a hunch that maybe (the people in the vehicle he passed) are the people that were in the argument.
When he made the traffic stop, Brown "observed that McCarty was under 21 years of age based on the date of birth on the driver's license," the appeals court said. "While speaking with McCarty, Corporal Brown could smell alcohol. Corporal Brown administered a preliminary breathalyzer test on McCarty, which tested positive for the presence of alcohol.
After arresting McCarty, Brown saw a case of beer on the backseat floorboard, behind the driver's seat.
But, McCarty's lawyers argued and the appeals court agreed, that evidence should not have been allowed.
"The Fourth Amendment protects the people 'against unreasonable searches and seizures,'" Martin wrote for the court, citing the U.S. Constitution and some U.S. Supreme Court cases. "A traffic stop constitutes a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
"Generally, seizures are unreasonable, and therefore unconstitutional, when done without a warrant."
However, Martin wrote, a 1968 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Terry v. Ohio determined "the Fourth Amendment allows a brief investigative detention if the officer has a reasonable suspicion, based on specific and articulable facts, that illegal activity has occurred or is occurring."
Martin added: "Corporal Brown's 'hunch' was not supported by specific and articulable facts."
Because the traffic stop wasn't based on "reasonable suspicion," the appeals court ruled, "Corporal Brown's 'Terry' stop of McCarty's vehicle was thus unlawful."