Zachariah J. Marshall v. State of Indiana
Zachariah J. Marshall v. State of Indiana
Opinion
Zachariah Marshall challenges the propriety of his traffic stop for speeding under both the United States and Indiana Constitutions. He presents us with an interesting question: When a police officer's calibrated radar indicates an oncoming vehicle is speeding, the officer then verifies the radar speed exceeds the posted speed limit, but he ultimately fails to document the excessive speed, is there reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop? We answer yes and affirm the trial court.
Factual and Procedural History
During the early morning hours of October 29, 2016, as Reserve Officer Sean Dolan patrolled near State Road 8 and 500 West in Hebron, Indiana, in Porter County, he observed a vehicle approaching him through the darkness. That night Officer Dolan drove a marked police car equipped with a radar unit that was mounted on the dashboard, turned on, and properly calibrated. As the vehicle approached him, Officer Dolan heard the radar giving off a high-pitch tone. He later explained that the higher the tone's pitch, the faster the speed. Upon hearing the high pitch, Officer Dolan looked at the radar's target speed, compared it to the 50-miles-per-hour speed limit sign posted just north of him, and saw the oncoming vehicle was traveling faster than the posted speed limit. It was a clear, dry night and Officer Dolan had no trouble seeing his radar unit, the posted speed limit, or the approaching car.
One-hundred-percent sure the oncoming vehicle was speeding, Officer Dolan initiated a traffic stop, intending to cite the driver for speeding only. With the car stopped, Officer Dolan approached and found Zachariah Marshall was the driver. Explaining that he stopped Marshall for speeding, Dolan asked him for his driver's license and vehicle registration. While Officer Dolan ran a warrant and BMV check, his back-up officer (Corporal O'Dea) arrived at the scene and talked with Marshall. Corporal O'Dea smelled alcohol on Marshall and noticed his slowed and slurred speech. With the routine speeding traffic stop now turned into an OWI investigation, Officer Dolan exercised his discretion and decided not to cite Marshall for *1257 speeding, later explaining: "I knew he was going to have plenty of money problems and legal problems ahead of him that were going to be costly and I decided to cut him a break on the citation for speeding." Tr. p. 15. Since Officer Dolan did not issue Marshall a speeding ticket or a written warning, he did not document the speed he clocked Marshall driving.
The State of Indiana eventually charged Marshall with three counts: (1) A-Misdemeanor Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated, Endangering a Person; (2) C-Misdemeanor Operating a Vehicle with an Alcohol Concentration Equivalent to at least 0.08 but less than 0.15; and (3) C-Misdemeanor Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated.
Marshall's counsel deposed Officer Dolan on June 15, 2017, nearly eight months after the traffic stop. During that deposition, Officer Dolan could recall neither the posted speed limit near the intersection of Route 8 and 500 West where he pulled over Marshall nor could he remember the radar reading of how fast Marshall was driving that night. Officer Dolan, however, stated that at the time of the traffic stop, he could see the speed limit sign posted on 500 West.
On August 4, 2017, Marshall moved to suppress all evidence from the traffic stop, alleging he'd been illegally seized under both the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. Regarding the Fourth Amendment, Marshall alleged Officer Dolan lacked reasonable suspicion to stop him for speeding that night. And concerning the Indiana Constitution, he alleged the traffic stop proved unreasonable considering the totality of the circumstances. Both arguments hinged upon the point that in his deposition testimony Officer Dolan could not recall how fast Marshall was driving before the traffic stop and could not remember the posted speed limit.
Officer Dolan testified at the suppression hearing, recounting the details surrounding the traffic stop and repeatedly acknowledging that he could not remember the posted speed or the radar speed during his deposition two months earlier. He testified he did not document Marshall's speed that night. He explained he returned to the scene of the traffic stop between his deposition and the suppression hearing and he could now definitely say the speed limit there is 50 miles per hour. Ultimately, Officer Dolan testified that he knew the posted speed limit the night of the stop and he was one-hundred-percent certain that Marshall was speeding before he stopped him.
The trial court eventually denied Marshall's suppression motion. The court's factual findings included that Officer Dolan "observed Defendant's car speeding and ... [he] was using a radar." The trial court then concluded:
Officer Dolan was sure , based on his experience and observations at the scene, on a clear night, that defendant approached the road in [question] traveling in excess of the posted speed limit. He was adamant that the defendant was traveling too fast. The Court thus finds that his stop of the defendant was based upon his observation that a traffic infraction was being committed. On that basis , the Court denies the Motion to Suppress.
Appellant's App. Vol. II, pp. 11-12 (emphases added). The trial court certified the order for interlocutory appeal and Marshall appealed.
The Court of Appeals accepted jurisdiction, and then reversed, holding: "Because Reserve Officer Dolan could not testify regarding the speed of Marshall's vehicle
*1258
in more specific terms ... he did not have specific articulable facts to support his initiation of a traffic stop, and therefore the traffic stop violated Marshall's Fourth Amendment rights."
Marshall v. State
,
The State petitioned for transfer, which we granted, thereby vacating the Court of Appeals opinion. Ind. Appellate Rule 58(A).
Standard of Review
Trial courts enjoy broad discretion in decisions to admit or exclude evidence.
Robinson v. State
,
Discussion and Decision
Traffic stops, for even minor violations, fall within the protections of the federal and state constitutions. When a law enforcement officer stops a vehicle for a suspected traffic infraction like speeding, that officer seizes the vehicle's occupants under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution ; and that traffic stop must pass constitutional muster.
Heien v. North Carolina
, --- U.S. ----,
I. The Fourth Amendment
A. The reasonable-suspicion standard applies to traffic violations generally.
The Fourth Amendment safeguards our persons, our property, and our peace by requiring that law enforcement first have a warrant supported by probable
*1259
cause before executing searches or seizures.
Robinson
,
Though admittedly "a 'somewhat abstract' concept," reasonable suspicion is not an illusory standard.
State v. Renzulli
,
Marshall argues that Reserve Officer Dolan lacked reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop since he did not document the radar speed, could not recall the posted speed limit in his deposition, and could not articulate Marshall's precise speed at the deposition or the suppression hearing. We disagree because the reasonable-suspicion standard does not become more exacting for speeding violations.
B. The reasonable-suspicion standard does not change for speeding traffic stops specifically.
Applying the reasonable-suspicion standard to traffic stops, we've previously said that, generally, "[a]n officer's decision to stop a vehicle is valid so long as his on-the-spot evaluation reasonably suggests that lawbreaking occurred."
Meredith
,
Marshall argues the answer to this question is yes, largely relying upon
United States v. Sowards
,
The Fourth Circuit held the officer's visual estimation of the defendant's speed alone did not provide sufficient suspicion for the traffic stop because it provided no factual foundation for speeding.
Marshall likens his case to
Sowards
and pushes for a similar result. He believes that had Officer Dolan documented his speed or even remembered how fast he was driving before the stop, then there would be some indicia of reliability here to make the traffic stop reasonable. But we see
Sowards
differently and notice two distinguishing points that limit its applicability here. First and foremost, the
Sowards
court evaluated that traffic stop for probable cause, not reasonable suspicion.
Sowards aside, Marshall, nevertheless, insists Officer Dolan lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Marshall for speeding because Dolan could not articulate, or even estimate, how fast Marshall was driving that night. Marshall demands a number from Officer Dolan, reasoning that we cannot do a Fourth Amendment reasonable-suspicion analysis without one. In support of that argument, Marshall invites us to establish a bright-line rule requiring that officers document a driver's exact speed in some way-by remembering it, documenting it in a citation, a written warning, or a probable-cause affidavit, or by recording the radar speed via a dashboard camera. We disagree initially with Marshall's premise that the Fourth Amendment's reasonable-suspicion requirement needs a number for a speeding violation to pass constitutional muster. And we then reject Marshall's invitation to establish such a black-and-white rule.
First, we disagree with Marshall's premise that the Fourth Amendment requires that an officer provide a number for how fast a defendant was driving.
*1261
The reasonable-suspicion standard does not demand such measures. Like probable cause, reasonable suspicion is not readily quantifiable and cannot be "reduced to a neat set of legal rules."
Sokolow
,
Second, we reject Marshall's request for a bright-line rule for similar reasons and because we think such a rule unnecessary. As we just said, reasonable suspicion must be evaluated based on the totality of the circumstances of each particular case. And this individualized test does not lend itself to bright-line, widespread rules. What amounts to reasonable suspicion in one case may not be enough in a different case. What's more, reasonable suspicion is not an exacting standard, and it has not and cannot be reduced to a generic checklist. For speeding violations in particular, it makes sense that either pacing or radar would naturally provide articulable, particularized objective facts to rouse reasonable suspicion. But this case does not require us to speak in such definitive terms.
C. Reserve Officer Dolan had reasonable suspicion that Marshall was speeding.
Looking at the totality of these facts-the whole picture-Officer Dolan had reasonable suspicion to stop Marshall for speeding that night, meaning Dolan possessed and provided sufficient articulable facts or particularized, objective facts that Marshall was speeding. He testified at the deposition and the suppression hearing that he was using radar that night. He also testified the radar was mounted in front of him, turned on, and properly calibrated that night. Officer Dolan testified the radar's high-pitch tone first alerted him that Marshall's oncoming vehicle was speeding. He explained he looked down at the radar and compared the radar speed to the posted 50-miles-per-hour speed limit and concluded Marshall was speeding. Officer Dolan testified he was one-hundred-percent sure that Marshall was speeding when he stopped him. All told, Officer Dolan articulated enough facts that gave him a particularized and objective basis for believing Marshall was speeding when he initiated the traffic stop. 1 We, therefore, hold that the traffic stop did not amount to an unconstitutional seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
II. Article 1, Section 11
The Indiana Constitution's Article 1, Section 11 also protects Hoosiers' persons, property, and peace from unreasonable State intrusion.
Quirk
,
When a defendant challenges the propriety of an investigative stop under the Indiana Constitution, the burden falls to the State to "show the police conduct 'was reasonable under the totality of the circumstances.' "
Robinson
,
First, based on the radar unit's indications, Reserve Officer Dolan had a high degree of knowledge that Marshall was speeding. Officer Dolan testified his radar's high-pitched tone alerted him that Marshall was speeding and even explained that a higher pitch indicated a faster speed. Officer Dolan then compared the radar speed to the reflective 50-miles-per-hour speed limit sign posted before him. We find that Officer Dolan acted with a great degree of suspicion and then knowledge that Marshall was driving too fast when he stopped him for speeding.
Second, we find that this initial seizure-a traffic stop for speeding-amounted to a small intrusion on Marshall's ordinary activities. Officer Dolan stopped Marshall at approximately 2:40 a.m. on a road with little-to-no traffic. Upon making the stop, Dolan explained why he stopped Marshall and asked him for his license and registration in order to run a warrant and BMV check-all routine procedures. The stop escalated into an OWI investigation only when Corporal O'Dea spoke with Marshall and noticed his slowed, slurred speech and smelled alcohol.
Third, we acknowledge that law enforcement has at least a legitimate, if not a compelling, need to enforce traffic-safety laws, including speeding limits. So long as governments set speed limits for public safety, those limits will need to be enforced.
Balancing these three factors, we hold Marshall's traffic stop for speeding did not violate Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. Officer Dolan possessed sufficient knowledge that Marshal was speeding, the initial stop was not intrusive, and law enforcement needs to be able to patrol speeding.
Conclusion
We hold this traffic stop passes muster under both the United States and Indiana Constitutions. As it relates to the Fourth Amendment, we find there were sufficient articulable facts to give Reserve Officer Dolan reasonable suspicion that Marshall was speeding. And for Article 1, Section 11, we find the traffic stop was reasonable in view of the totality of the circumstances. We, therefore, affirm the trial court's decision denying Marshall's motion to suppress evidence.
Rush, C.J., and David, Massa, and Slaughter, JJ., concur.
We pause a moment to address Marshall's suggestion that Officer Dolan was not a credible witness. But we can only respond by noting that credibility determinations fall outside our purview in these cases. The trial court's order shows that it found Dolan credible, and we will not disturb that determination. See supra p. 1257-58.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Zachariah J. MARSHALL, Appellant (Defendant Below), v. STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff Below).
- Cited By
- 36 cases
- Status
- Published