State v. Johnson ( 1977 )

PER CURIAM.

Defendant, charged with felonious theft and burglary, attempted at the Rasmussen hearing to have the physical evidence against him suppressed on the ground that it was the fruit of a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The district court denied the motion and defendant, apparently believing that his only hope was in challenging the suppression order on appeal from final judgment, waived a jury and agreed to submit the issue of his guilt to the court on a stipulation as to what the state’s witnesses would testify to if called. Defendant’s convictions and this appeal followed. We reverse on the ground that the decisive evidence of defendant’s guilt was the product of a violation of defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights.

At 1:30 p. m. on October 29, 1974, an officer of the Maplewood Police Department stopped an automobile driven by defendant. The officer had not observed any traffic violations but stopped defendant because he suspected something was wrong. However, at the Rasmussen hearing the officer was unable to articulate why he became suspicious of the vehicle, saying with commendable candidness, “I can’t tell you. I don’t know.” The best the officer could do was say that something had aroused his suspicion.

While checking defendant’s driver’s license, the officer smelled the odor of burned marijuana and observed marijuana seeds in the front seat. On the basis of this, he arrested defendant. He then searched the rest of the car and seized an old rifle and a wallet, found in the trunk, which a radio check revealed to have been taken in a recent house burglary. This is the evidence defendant, at the Rasmussen hearing, urged be suppressed.

In State v. McKinley, 305 Minn. 297, 232 N.W.2d 906 (1975), this court held that single nonsystematic stops for routine driver’s license checks required as justification some specific and articulable suspicion by police of a violation. In so holding, we quoted approvingly the following statement by the New York court in People v. Ingle, 36 N.Y.2d 413, 420, 369 N.Y.S.2d 67, 74, 330 N.E.2d 39, 44 (1975):

“It should be emphasized that the factual basis required to support a stop for a ‘routine traffic check’ is minimal. An actual violation of the Vehicle and Traffic Law need not be detectable. For example, an automobile in a general state of dilapidation might properly arouse suspicion of equipment violations. All that is required is that the stop be not the product of mere whim, caprice, or idle curiosity. It is enough if the stop is based upon ‘specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant [the] intrusion.’ (Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, [20 L.Ed.2d 889, 906 (1968)]).”

Here the officer may well have observed something which reasonably aroused his suspicion but he was unable to articulate what that something was. Because of this, we cannot make an independent determination of whether the officer had reason to suspect some violation by defendant.

Since the stop was illegal, it follows that the evidence which was seized from defendant after the stop should have been suppressed.

Reversed.