Wright v. State
Wright v. State
Opinion of the Court
[¶1] Appellant, Garrett A. Wright, entered a conditional guilty plea to the charge of possession of marijuana (third or subsequent offense), reserving his right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence. Finding no error, we affirm the denial of the motion to suppress and, hence, Mr. Wright's conviction and sentence.
ISSUE
[¶2] Mr. Wright presents the following issue on appeal: Did the warrantless detention of Mr. Wright violate the Fourth Amendment and Wyoming Constitution Article I, §§ 4, 6 and 36 ?
FACTS
[¶3] In preparation to direct traffic from the Albany County Fairgrounds at the end of the Jubilee Days rodeo on the evening of July 15, 2017, Laramie Police Officer Christopher Cleven and another officer parked their patrol cars in the middle of Highway 287 with lights flashing. Officer Cleven wore his department-issued helmet and safety vest, and stood positioned to stop traffic heading northbound on Highway 287 in order to allow vehicles to exit the fairgrounds. As Officer Cleven signaled with his flashlight for oncoming traffic to stop, an approaching pickup truck maintained highway speed until it was within 150 feet of Officer Cleven. The truck then rapidly decreased speed and came to a complete stop after veering onto the right shoulder, about 30 feet past Officer Cleven.
[¶4] Officer Cleven found Mr. Wright in the truck, looking dazed and moving items from the center console to behind the driver's seat. Rather than rolling down his window as Officer Cleven asked, Mr. Wright lit a cigarette. When Mr. Wright finally rolled his window down, Officer Cleven immediately smelled a strong odor of marijuana. After taking a Standard Field Sobriety Test, Mr. Wright told Officer Cleven he had smoked marijuana at noon that day and there was marijuana in the center console. Officer Cleven searched the vehicle, finding marijuana and a glass pipe with marijuana residue.
[¶5] Mr. Wright moved to suppress the evidence,
STANDARD OF REVIEW
[¶6] We review de novo the question of whether Officer Cleven legally detained Mr. Wright. Rodriguez v. State ,
DISCUSSION
[¶7] Mr. Wright claims that Officer Cleven unlawfully detained him because he was not violating any laws as he was traveling down the highway and was only stopped pursuant to an illegal temporary roadblock.
[¶8] Wyoming law authorizes law enforcement officers to establish temporary roadblocks to slow or stop traffic for the purpose of "apprehending persons reasonably believed by the officers to be wanted for violation of the laws of this or any other state, or of the United States, and who are using any highway within the state."
[¶9] Rather, as the district court determined, Officer Cleven was directing traffic to ensure public safety following the Jubilee Days rodeo pursuant to his authority under Wyo. Stat. §§ 31-5-102 ; -109(a)(ii) (LexisNexis 2017). Wyo. Stat. § 31-5-104 states "[n]o person shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any police officer ... with authority to direct, control or regulate traffic." The district court found that Mr. Wright disobeyed Officer Cleven's signal to stop while Officer Cleven was lawfully directing traffic. Here again, Mr. Wright has failed to establish that the district court's finding is clearly erroneous, or to otherwise present cogent argument to support his challenge to the district court's order denying his motion to suppress. For decades we have summarily affirmed cases or issues in cases that are not presented with cogent argument, and we do so here. See, e.g. , *1095Hamburg v. Heilbrun ,
[¶10] The initial stop was legally valid because Officer Cleven personally observed Mr. Wright's traffic violation. Whren v. United States ,
[¶11] Affirmed.
Mr. Wright's counsel inadvertently filed two motions to suppress on September 28, 2017. The State filed a combined response to the motions, and the district court's order treated Mr. Wright's filings as a single motion.
To the extent Mr. Wright attempts to resurrect any assertions he initially raised in his motion to suppress, but abandoned at the suppression hearing, those assertions are now deemed waived. See, e.g. , Rodriguez v. State ,
The district court found the stop proper under both the state and federal constitutions; however, we address only Mr. Wright's arguments pertaining to the federal constitution as he has failed to provide any analysis that the outcome under the state constitution would differ from the outcome under the federal constitution. Dixon v. State ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Garrett A. WRIGHT, (Defendant) v. The STATE of Wyoming, (Plaintiff).
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published