Banks v. State

Summary

The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Charquan Banks’s motion to suppress evidence obtained after an investigatory stop. The Court held that Banks’s operation of an electric bicycle on a Wilmington sidewalk violated a city ordinance and supplied reasonable articulable suspicion, even though the officer mistakenly identified a different legal provision as the basis for the stop.

Holdings

1. Banks's violation of Wilmington City Ordinance Section 37-329 supplied reasonable articulable suspicion to justify a brief investigatory stop.
2. A stop remains lawful when the facts known to a reasonable officer objectively support suspicion that the observed conduct is unlawful, even if the officer mistakenly identifies the particular code provision that prohibits the conduct.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the investigatory stop was supported by reasonable articulable suspicion when Banks was riding an electric bicycle on a Wilmington sidewalk in violation of a city ordinance.
2. Whether an officer's mistaken identification of the particular legal provision prohibiting the conduct invalidated the stop.

Disposition

affirmed