Centerville Police got a tip that "Tony Curtis" was trespassing at the Chevy Chase Apartments. One officer blocked Curtis's vehicle with his police cruiser. Another officer took his ID and confirmed that "Tony Curtis" had not been trespassed from the Chevy Chase Apartments. The Centerville Police continued to block Curtis's car and they still had his driver's license. They had no "reasonable, articulable suspicion" that Curtis was engaged in criminal activity so they had no right to detain him at that point. Eventually they found contraband in his car.
Curtis filed a motion to suppress the evidence. The Montgomery County trial judge, Connie S. Price, overruled the motion to suppress because she said a reasonable person would have felt free to leave so Curtis was not detained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Second District Court of Appeals for Montgomery County reversed the decision of the trial judge since a reasonable person would not have felt free to leave under the circumstances and so Curtis was illegally detained when officers found the contraband. The contraband should have been suppressed because it was found as the result of the illegal detention. Read the decision here.
If you are accused of a crime or have been convicted already, contact me if you can afford to hire a criminal defense lawyer. Otherwise, contact your county or state public defender to see if they can help.
