Wednesday, June 25, 2003

No sticker leads to police stop, search of car, search of passengers, finding of gun, finding of cocaine

In Slayton v. Commonwealth, the Virginia Court of Appeals in an opinion by Judge Kelsey joined by Judge Felton and Senior Judge Willis affirmed the denial of a motion to suppress, where the defendant's vehicle was pulled over for no county decal, then the policeman spotted bullets in the car and was given permission to search, then the officer noticed the passenger appeared to have a gun, then found the gun, then found the cocaine incident to the arrest for the gun.

When I was in law school, my car was registered in the Town of Abingdon, which used tags instead of window decals, with the result that I got a lot of tickets in Williamsburg and was sometimes pulled over in Virginia Beach for not having a sticker, even though none was required.

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