Mainsail
Regular Member
imported post
The State Supreme Court overturned the trial court and the appellate court on the subject of whether Harrington was illegally seized.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=817197MAJ
The State Supreme Court overturned the trial court and the appellate court on the subject of whether Harrington was illegally seized.
Law enforcement officers arrested petitioner Dustin Warren Harrington after patting him down and finding a glass pipe in his pocket. The State contends the search was consensual and flowed from a valid social contact. Harrington asserts police officers unconstitutionally seized him
Requesting to frisk is inconsistent with a mere social contact. If [officer] Reiber felt jittery about the bulges in Harrington's pockets, he should have terminated the encounter -- which Reiber initiated -- and walked back to his patrol car. Instead Reiber requested a frisk.
http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/index.cfm?fa=opinions.showOpinion&filename=817197MAJ