People of Michigan v. Michael Douglas North

STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED

September 19, 2017 Plaintiff-Appellee, v No. 332310

Oakland Circuit Court MICHAEL DOUGLAS NORTH, LC No. 2015-255761-FH

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: GADOLA, P.J., and CAVANAGH and SWARTZLE, JJ.

GADOLA, J. (concurring).

I concur in the result reached by my colleagues. I write separately to express that I am dubious of the officer’s claim that he smelled “fresh marijuana” on the driver’s side window of defendant’s car. This was a relatively small amount of marijuana (7.63 grams, or around one- quarter of an ounce, according to the Michigan State Police lab report). Furthermore, it was enclosed in a plastic bag on the passenger seat of defendant’s car, and was covered by defendant’s personal effects. Under the facts presented, this officer must possess exceptionally well-refined olfactory senses in order to have detected the odor of marijuana from the driver’s side window. However, like the trial court, I am constrained to conclude that I do not possess a sufficient basis upon which to conclude that the officer was lying. 1 And while it is true that defendant produced no evidence to support that the officer was lying, it is difficult to conceive how defendant could have met that burden. Nonetheless, I concur.

/s/ Michael F. Gadola