- Court: Oregon Court of Appeals
- Area(s) of Law: Criminal Procedure
- Date Filed: 09-09-2021
- Case #: A167724
- Judge(s)/Court Below: Powers, J. for the Court; Lagesen, P.J. & Landau, S.J.
- Full Text Opinion
Defendant was charged with violating Portland’s City Code restricting possession of loaded firearms. Defendant assigned error to the denial of his motion to suppress. Defendant argued that he was unlawfully seized, and police had no reasonable suspicion and therefore unlawfully searched his car, also there was no unavoidable lull because officers were not looking into anything driving related. The State argued that there was an "independent constitutional justification" for the police to investigate the car. Officers’ activities during a traffic stop must be reasonably related to the traffic stop or be supported by an independent constitutional justification. When the officer went around the corner to look for “something illegal” in the car, he exceeded the scope of the traffic stop. There was no specific reason to extend the duration of the stop. Reversed and remanded.