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Utah finds no de minimus exception to enable a dog sniff after the purpose of a stop has concluded.

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The is no de minimus exception to enable a dog sniff after the purpose of a stop has concluded. Extending the stop is unreasonable. State v. Baker, 2010 UT 18, 2010 Utah LEXIS 17 (March 12, 2010), aff’g State v. Baker, 2008 UT App 115, 182 P.3d 935 (2008): B. No De Minimis Exception Allows Officers to Conduct a Dog Sniff After the Purpose of the Stop Has Concluded [*P28] The State also argues that because there was only a short amount of time between the completion of the arrest of the driver and the arrival of the K-9 unit, we should hold that any extension of the detention of the passengers was de minimis. But "even a small intrusion beyond the legitimate scope of an initially lawful search is unlawful under the Fourth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 18, 2010 (boomark / email).