Amy Avant v. State, A25A0580

Amy Avant was stopped by a Grantville Police sergeant on I-85 for failing to maintain her lane in a rental car she was driving.
The sergeant, a certified K-9 handler on drug interdiction patrol, noticed nervous behavior from Avant and her passenger during the traffic stop.
Avant struggled to produce a rental agreement and admitted to having a firearm in her purse but denied possessing drugs; she twice refused consent to a search.
The sergeant continued questioning Avant while running checks for warrants and filling out the citation; eventually, a second officer took over writing the ticket while the sergeant conducted a drug-sniff with a police dog.
The dog alerted to the presence of drugs about 11 minutes into the stop; a search revealed five kilograms of methamphetamine and a firearm.
Avant’s motion to suppress the evidence was denied by the trial court, on the grounds that the stop was not unreasonably prolonged, leading to this interlocutory appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether questioning unrelated to the stop unlawfully prolonged it	Avant: The officer abandoned the traffic stop mission based on a mere hunch, not suspicion	State: Questioning occurred during permissible stop activities and did not prolong the stop	Questioning did not impermissibly prolong stop
Whether dog sniff unlawfully prolonged the traffic stop	Avant: The sniff was not part of the traffic stop’s mission and extended the stop	State: Dog sniff occurred while citation was still being processed, so did not prolong stop	Dog sniff did not unlawfully prolong stop
Whether overall duration of the stop was reasonable	Avant: The duration was excessive and not reasonably diligent	State: 11 minutes was reasonable, and officer was diligent	Stop duration was reasonable
Whether search of the car was constitutional	Avant: Evidence should be suppressed as fruit of unconstitutional seizure	State: Lawful stop, lawful sniff, and resulting probable cause justified search	Search was constitutional, evidence admissible

Kennebrew v. State, 304 Ga. 406 (appellate standard for reviewing motions to suppress)
State v. Allen, 298 Ga. 1 (dog sniffs that do not prolong a traffic stop are permissible)
McNeil v. State, 362 Ga. App. 85 (limits on questioning and dog sniffs during traffic stop)
Lewis v. State, 332 Ga. App. 466 (dog sniff does not prolong stop if another officer is finishing citation)
Moore v. State, 321 Ga. App. 813 (questioning unrelated to stop allowed concurrent with citation process)
Sommese v. State, 299 Ga. App. 664 (officer may question about drugs while completing citations)