Repeater
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imported post
Defendant had right to walk away from approaching officer
From the opinion:
As the blog noted:
Jones v. Commonwealth, 2008 Va. App. LEXIS 561 (December 23, 2008)
Defendant had right to walk away from approaching officer
From the opinion:
Jones refused to heed the officer's requests to stop. However, citizens who are not under arrest or otherwise detained have every right to refuse or ignore requests from law enforcement officers. "[W]hen an officer, without reasonable suspicion or probable cause, approaches an individual, the individual has a right to ignore the police and go about his business." Id. at 125 (citing Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 103 S. Ct. 1319, 75 L. Ed. 2d 229 (1983)). Moreover, a "'refusal to cooperate, without more, does not furnish the minimal level of objective justification needed for a detention or seizure.'" Id. (quoting Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 437, 111 S. Ct. 2382, 115 L. Ed. 2d 389 (1991)). That was precisely what occurred here.
As the blog noted:
Thus, the seizure of the .45 caliber gun was illegal. The court affirms your right to refuse consent AND to walk away.The state's argument here proved too much. It wants to be able to say that a person had a right to refuse a purely consensual encounter with the officer, but then require the defendant to not walk away.
Jones v. Commonwealth, 2008 Va. App. LEXIS 561 (December 23, 2008)