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OH5: Request for consent while handing papers back did not unreasonably extend the stop

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A request for consent to search at the same time the officer handed back defendant’s DL and registration papers did not mean that the stop was continued for the request for consent. State v. Eatmon, 2010 Ohio 5092, 2010 Ohio App. LEXIS 4287 (5th Dist. October 18, 2010)*: [*P38] While the officer goes on to testify that standard operating procedure is to issue the warning and tell the person that he or she is free to leave before requesting consent to search, in the instant case appellant was not free to leave after she issued the warning because she had not yet returned his license and registration. While she could not remember whether she returned these items before or after the search of the vehicle, the request to search was contemporaneous with the return of appellant's license and registration, and the officer therefore had not completed the traffic stop at the time consent was received for the search...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 24, 2010 (boomark / email).