United States v. Glover

Summary

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals reviewed the suppression of marijuana evidence discovered during a traffic stop. The court held that the stop, removal of the driver, and protective search of the passenger compartment could be permissible under the Fourth Amendment, but remanded for factual findings concerning the driver's reaching movement, whether officers ordered him to exit, and whether the seizure and opening of a burlap sack satisfied the plain-feel doctrine.

Holdings

1. The officers made a valid traffic stop because their observation that the front license plate was not securely fastened supplied objective grounds to believe a civil traffic infraction was occurring.
2. A lawful traffic stop is not transformed into a custodial detention or the functional equivalent of an arrest merely because the officers blocked the vehicle, opened the door, ordered Glover to exit, or briefly pulled him from the vehicle, assuming Glover made the reported suspicious reaching movement.
3. A frisk of Glover or a protective search of the vehicle required reasonable articulable suspicion, based on objective facts and circumstances, that Glover was armed or had access to a weapon and was dangerous; nervousness alone was insufficient on the record presented.
4. If the officer had sufficient reasonable suspicion to search for weapons, the protective search could extend beneath the driver's seat even though Glover had been removed from the vehicle and the area was not in plain view.
5. The record did not establish whether the officer lawfully seized and opened the burlap sack under the plain-feel doctrine; the trial court had to determine whether the sack's identity as contraband was immediately apparent without manipulation beyond what Terry permitted.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the officers' stop of Glover's vehicle for an improperly displayed front license plate was lawful.
2. Whether blocking the vehicle, opening its door, ordering Glover to exit, and briefly pulling him from the vehicle transformed the traffic stop into an unlawful custodial detention or arrest.
3. Whether the officers had reasonable articulable suspicion that Glover was armed and dangerous sufficient to conduct a protective search of the vehicle.
4. Whether a protective search could extend beneath the driver's seat even though Glover had been removed from the vehicle and the area was not in plain view.
5. Whether the officer could seize and open the burlap sack under the Fourth Amendment's plain-feel doctrine.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded