Mickey v.Commonwealth, 2012-CA-000723-MR
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED
Holds that the arrest of the driver of a car for driving on a suspended license was illegal because a new statute already in effect required a citation only. The arrest led to the smell of marijuana after the officer removed the defendant from the car, and a subsequent search finding additional contraband was held to be improper. An interesting wrinkle was that after the defendant was placed in the police cruiser it was determined that there were warrants out for his arrest. The court held that the search would still have been invalid under Gant since the defendant was already in the police cruiser when they found out about the warrants.
This was a conditional guilty plea based on a motion to suppress filed by Herb West of the Lexington office. Gene Lewter handled the direct appeal.
Contributed by Shannon Smith
