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MADISON - A state appeals court threw out a Twin Lakes man's conviction Wednesday due to a sheriff's deputy's provocative driving tactics.
The District 2 Court of Appeals concluded that not only did Deputy Jon Thomas Jones lack reasonable suspicion to pull over Michael D. Peters last May but Jones' close following of Peters prompted Peters' "unusual" driving that led to the traffic stop.
The appeals court determined that Jones engaged in "provocative behavior in his search for drunk drivers," when he followed Peters, who was driving to his Twin Lakes home after working the second shift at the Chrysler Kenosha Engine Plant.
Peters' attorney, Rex Anderegg of Milwaukee, claimed on appeal that Jones was trying to "flush out drunk drivers by provoking them with aggressive driving behavior," according to the decision.
On the night of the incident, Peters, 56, pulled into a fire station parking lot in order to get away from the car following him. Peters returned to the road and soon noticed that the car that had followed him was a sheriff's squad car now parked along the road.
After Peters passed the squad car, it pulled out behind him. Believing he was being pursued, Peters pulled over.
Jones approached Peters' truck and asked Peters for identification. Peters refused and asked why he was being followed. Jones told Peters to step out of the truck and eventually Jones unlocked the door, unbuckled Peters' seat belt and arrested him for obstruction of an officer.
Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Wilk denied Peters' motions that the traffic stop was illegal, finding that pulling into the fire station was "unusual" and gave Jones reasonable suspicion to investigate. A jury found Peters guilty, and Wilk imposed a $287 fine.
Police can pull over a motorist if there is reasonable suspicion the driver is violating a law. However, Wilk failed to address whether Jones' actions provoked Peters' driving, according to the appeals decision.
"The law does not condone the successful prosecution of offenses that are caused by the state's agents. Where reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop stems from behavior caused by the state itself through the actions of a law enforcement officer, the public interest in allowing the violator to claim a defense outweighs the public interest in prosecution," Judge Harry Snyder wrote in the eight-page opinion.
Peters' arrest for obstruction must be dismissed, according to the decision. Although Jones claimed that Sheriff's Department policy makes refusal to produce identification obstruction, the appeals court disagreed, stating the failure to identify oneself by itself doesn't constitute obstruction.
State law requires motorists to carry their driver's license and produce it on demand from an officer legally performing his duties. Failure to do so is obstruction, the state argued on appeal.
The appeals court didn't allow consideration of that argument because it wasn't raised before Wilk and because Peters was arrested for obstruction, not for failure to carry a license.
Although Peters could have taken the district attorney's offer to plead no contest to a non-criminal offense and pay the fine, he risked trial and spending more money on the appeal because "he felt so strongly the officer's behavior was inappropriate," said Anderegg.
"He wasn't willing to play the plea-bargain game and cut his losses when he hadn't done anything wrong," said Anderegg.
A call to Assistant District Attorney Crystal Jensen, who prosecuted the case, wasn't returned before deadline.
justice4all wrote:
Not related to open carry, but I honor this guy Peter's for sticking to his gun's, or moral ethic's in taking this to the top. The attorney sounds like one that might be of some help if someone get's a lame obstruction offense for open carry. See todays news article in the Kenosha News. Article
http://www.kenoshanews.com/article_comments/view_comments.php?articleNum=3035584
Wished I had the money and time to challange such offenses when speed trapped on 94 and highway C. In which I travel the road every day and the picked the wrong pickup truck to pull over instead of the one actually speeding by me. You may want to keep this attorney's name in your back wallet. Rex Anderegg of Milwaukee.
Welcome to the forum. There is a Wisconsin sub-forum.
