Cuff 'N Stuff
The Internal Newsletter of the Wise County Sheriff's
Department
12-14-01
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Cuff 'N Stuff 12-14-01 |
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Dumb CrooksTM Sauce Lands Thieves in a Pickle LONDON - Four suspected thieves who robbed a Chinese food delivery man by hitting him with a bag of prawn crackers were nabbed after police followed a tell-tale trail of spicy sauce, British police said on Tuesday. Police in the West Midlands said the takeaway delivery driver was jumped on by a group of people who bashed him over the head with the light-weight crackers before stealing his food. When officers arrived, they noticed a thin path of sauce had leaked from one of the containers. They followed it to a nearby apartment where they arrested three men and a woman. The driver, who has not been named, was not seriously hurt, police said. The four arrested were due to appear before magistrates in Walsall charged with robbery. Another man was released without charge. Teen Burglar Caught Napping KUALA LUMPUR - A security guard caught a teenaged burglar napping in an armchair just before dawn at a medical college in central Malaysia, local newspapers reported on Tuesday. Police in the city of Ipoh were called after the man, a factory worker, was discovered sound asleep, his loot beside him. Police official Ahmed Tejuddin Abdul Majeed said the burglar's haul was about $530 worth of audio-visual equipment. © 2001 Dumb Crooks
Legal Issues - Search and Seizure STOP AND FRISK OF MOTORIST JUSTIFIED BY SUSPICION DEVELOPED DURING TRAFFIC STOP. A police officer saw the car in which the defendant was riding traveling four miles per hour faster than the posted speed limit on an interstate highway in the early hours of the morning. The officer stopped the car, identified the driver, and questioned him about who owned the car. Inside the car were two passengers, neither of whom was the car’s owner. In the course of trying to determine who owned the car, the officer spoke to each of the passengers. The man who had been riding in the front seat said they had been taking a friend of theirs to Dallas. The defendant, who was in the back seat, gave the officer a false name and had no driver’s license. His hesitation to a question about his date of birth led the officer to suspect that the man didn’t know the date and was “making it up as he went along.” When questioned about the defendant’s name, the driver of the car was uncertain, and the officer could not find any record on the name the man had given. Eventually, the driver told the officer the man’s true name. Suspicious that the men were involved in drug trafficking, the officer obtained consent from the driver to search the car. After getting the defendant out of the back seat, the officer frisked him and felt a large object below the man’s waistline and above his groin. The defendant was handcuffed, and the officer opened the man’s pants, finding a bag of cocaine taped to his body. He was charged with possession, and moved to suppress the drugs as fruit of an illegal stop and search.
Holding: The defendant did not claim that the traffic stop was unlawful. Driving at a speed above the posted limit establishes a prima facie case of speeding for which a motorist may be detained. The detention of the defendant and his companions required reasonable suspicion at its inception. To establish reasonable suspicion, the officer must have been able to point to “specific, articulable facts that, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant the detention.” In order to justify the detention, the officer testified that the interstate highway on which the stop was made is a corridor for narcotics traffic. The driver and passenger gave inconsistent stories about the purpose for their travel, and the defendant acted suspiciously when answering questions about his date of birth. The driver at first was uncertain about the defendant’s name, then identified him by his true name, which was not the name the defendant had given the officer earlier. All of this taken together provided reasonable suspicion to detain the defendant and investigate further. Independent suspicion must exit to warrant a frisk. “The relevant inquiry is not whether the officer had a subjective fear for his safety; rather, the court must determine whether a reasonably prudent person in the officer’s position would be warranted in the belief that his safety or the safety of others was in danger.” The officer testified that he suspected the three men were involved in drug trafficking and that the defendant might be a fugitive. It was late at night on a highway known as a drug corridor; the defendant had lied about his name; and the other men gave inconsistent answers about the purpose of their trip. Although there were two other officers on the scene when the frisk was conducted, there also were two other suspects to be watched. The officer who frisked the defendant was about to search the car, and it was important to insure his safety while his attention was focused on that search. The officer felt a large object during the frisk, and he testified that he did not know whether it was a weapon. For his protection, he handcuffed the suspect before opening the man’s pants. If an object is felt during a pat-down search, and that object reasonably might be a weapon, the officer may reach inside the suspect’s clothing to determine whether it actually is something that poses a threat. In this case, the stop of the defendant was justified by speeding, and his continued detention was supported by reasonable suspicion. The frisk was justified by the officer’s reasonable belief that the suspect might be armed and dangerous, and retrieval of the “large object” was supported by reasonable concern that it was a weapon. The suppression motion was properly denied. COMMENT: This case reiterates an important point regarding the law of stop and frisk. A frisk is not automatically justified simply because grounds exist to support a stop. Independent evidence must be found that the suspect is armed and dangerous before even a pat-down may be conducted. Because the justification for the warrantless search (frisk) is grounded in safety concerns, only objects that feel like a weapon may be removed from a suspect’s clothing and inspected more closely. Farmer v. State, 47 S.W.3d 187 (Tex. App.-Texarkana 2001).
From the Chaplain - Marilyn Featherstone ON CHRISTMAS EVE On Christmas Eve, God revealed Himself to us and allowed us to see Him as he really is. When we see Jesus Christ, we are seeing the very image of God Almighty. John 1:18 says that no one has ever seen God, but the Son...”who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” ” There is a story of a great European cathedral whose ceiling was adorned with a painting of an artist’s conception of God, drawn in brilliant colors. But the ceiling was so high and the cathedral so narrow that it hurt visitors to crane their necks to view the painting. The ingenious rector placed a mirror at ground level, tilted so that worshipers, by looking in the mirror, could study the image of the painting above. May we all realize what a blessing the birth of Jesus was and live so that He is reflected in our lives, as well.
Holiday Blues and Stress—Robin Melton The Christmas holidays are to be a time of joy, celebration, and family reunion. However it can also be a time of stress, anxiety, depression and family conflict. This time of year, not only does domestic violence increase, so does the suicide rate. Many factors contribute to blues and stress. It may be shopping stress, money woes, setting our expectations too high, or circumstances such as a recent divorce or death in the family. Whatever the source, the concerns can ruin the holidays for both you and loved ones, and may become just too much to handle. Here are some suggestions to alleviate as much stress as possible and make this holiday what it was intended to be: happier and more relaxed. STRESS BUSTER SUGGESTIONS:
To avoid overload, just keep it simple. Have a great time throughout the process. Don’t dread shopping, wrapping, cooking. Try to find happiness in all you do. Enjoy the days leading up to the celebration. Have a memorable holiday season by simply not trying to do it all. And remember the reason for the season. |
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Crime Does Not Have To Be A Fact Of Life |
