On Point blog, page 1 of 1
COA: Reasonable suspicion to stop vehicle if police know owner of vehicle was not issued Wisconsin driver’s license unless officer has information suggesting owner is not driving.
State v. Tobin J. Jagla, 2023AP2311-CR, 3/18/25, District III (not recommended for publication); case activity
COA affirms circuit court’s order denying Tobin Jagla’s motion to suppress where police stopped the vehicle he was driving after an officer determined the registered owner of the vehicle did not have a Wisconsin driver’s license. Although officer learned during the stop that Jagla was not the registered owner, Jagla and owner were both males and similar in age.
Rookie cop’s mistake in reading results of registration check didn’t invalidate stop given other facts showing reasonable suspicion
State v. Anthony Francen Harris, 2019AP1908-CR, District 3, 7/30/21 (one-judge decision; ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
Police stopped the car Harris was driving in part because Skenandore, an officer-in-training, misread the data on his in-squad computer screen and wrongly concluded that the car’s owner didn’t have a valid license. (¶¶2-3, 5-7). His mistake doesn’t matter because the officer’s other observations justified the stop.
Court of appeals affirms traffic stop made due to mistake of fact
State v. Kelly W. Brown, 2018AP2382-CR, Distrct 4, 5/23/19 (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
Deputy Weinfurter stopped Brown because he thought that Brown’s car had 6 headlights illuminated on its front rather than the maximum of 4 allowed by §347.07(1). The stop led to an OWI 2nd charge. Brown moved to suppress arguing that the deputy’s assumptions about the number of headlights on his car were unreasonable. Indeed his car had only 4 headlights.