Thomas Davis v. Commonwealth – SCt,
3/17/2016, to be published.
In 2015, the United States Supreme Court held that
a police officer may not extend a traffic stop—even for a de minimus
amount of time--beyond its original purpose for the sole purpose of conducting
a dog sniff. Rodriguez v. United States, 135 S.Ct. 1609 (2015.
In Davis,
the Kentucky Supreme Court followed Rodriguez, supra, and held
that a routine traffic stop for a possible intoxicated driver, extended for a
dog sniff, violated the Fourth Amendment.
The
Court also held:
To
the extent that Epps [v. Commonwealth, 295 S.W.3d 807 (Ky. 2009)] and Johnson
[v. Commonwealth, 179 S.W.3d 882 (Ky. App. 2005)] suggest otherwise,
they are necessarily overruled by our acknowledgement of Rodriguez.
The
“key question” is not whether the duration of Appellant’s roadside
detention was unreasonable; rather, it is whether the sniff search was related
to the purpose for which Appellant was stopped; that is, a DUI traffic
stop to ascertain a driver’s sobriety.
Contributed by Julia K. Pearson
