Greenfield, Adair County, Iowa. For the second time this year, a Judge ruled that an Adair County Deputy’s stop of a motorist was constitutionally invalid when he followed GRL’s client for miles, claiming that the vehicle weaved within its lane but mysteriously failed to activate his in-car video camera. The Constitution requires that for an officer to validly stop a motorist, he/she must first have a identifiable traffic offense or reason to believe the individual was engaged in criminal activity. The Adair County Deputy has a history of following motorists for miles and then claiming that they weaved within their lane so as to justify him stopping the vehicle to determine what could be the cause of the weaving. The last case where the judge granted the motion to suppress evidence, the Deputy actually followed GRL’s client for 13 miles. This time, it was 6 miles but yet, despite his training and the court’s ruling in the prior case, the Deputy still failed to activate the in-car camera that could provide objective evidence of the claimed driving behavior. The Judge ruled the driving behavior that was captured on the video recording was insufficient to justify the stop of the vehicle and the officer’s claims that were not supported by the video were not convincing enough to warrant the intrusion in GRL’s client’s right to be free from government interference. License saved and criminal case dismissed outright.
