State v. Peeks

Summary

The Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed the suppression of cocaine discovered during a pat-down search of Halbert Peeks following a traffic stop. The court held that the officer lacked articulable facts establishing reasonable suspicion that Peeks was armed and dangerous and rejected application of the good-faith exception to the warrantless search.

Holdings

1. Reasonable suspicion that justified requesting field-sobriety tests did not, without articulable facts indicating that Peeks was armed and dangerous, justify a frisk for weapons.
2. The officer lacked probable cause to arrest Peeks for operating a vehicle while impaired, so the pat-down could not be upheld as a search incident to arrest.
3. The good-faith exception did not save evidence obtained through an unreasonable warrantless search based solely on the officer's own judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the totality of the circumstances established probable cause to arrest Peeks for operating a vehicle while impaired.
2. Whether the circumstances established reasonable suspicion that Peeks was armed and dangerous sufficient to justify a Terry pat-down.
3. Whether reasonable suspicion to investigate possible impaired driving permitted the officer to frisk or search Peeks.
4. Whether the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applied to the warrantless pat-down search.

Disposition

affirmed