State v. Perry, 318 Neb. 613

Officer Coon stopped Detron L. Perry after observing his vehicle’s rear turn signal was dim and blinking irregularly; Perry’s license was found to be suspended.
Perry fled the scene when asked to exit the vehicle, leading to felony charges for operating a vehicle to avoid arrest and a misdemeanor driving under suspension.
Perry moved to suppress evidence from the stop, arguing the turn signal was functioning and the stop was therefore unconstitutional.
The trial court denied Perry’s motion to suppress and admitted evidence of his DMV suspension notifications, which Perry argued were sent to the wrong address.
Perry was convicted on both counts and sentenced to probation; the district court did not impose a 2-year license revocation, despite statutory language suggesting it was mandatory for his felony conviction.
On appeal, Perry challenged the traffic stop, sufficiency of notice evidence, and the sufficiency for the avoid-arrest charge; the State cross-appealed on the sentencing error.

Issue	Perry's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Constitutionality of the traffic stop	Stop lacked probable cause as the turn signal was functioning, even if dim	Officer’s belief was reasonable under the circumstances, creating probable cause	Probable cause existed; motion to suppress was properly denied
Sufficiency of evidence—DMV notice	Notices sent to an outdated address, lacking proof Perry knew of suspension	Law requires notice be sent to DMV’s last-known address, not actual notice/receipt	Sufficient evidence to support conviction
Sufficiency—avoid arrest conviction	He was not told he was under arrest or would be cited before fleeing	Crime occurs by fleeing before arrest occurs; specific announcement unnecessary	Sufficient evidence; conviction affirmed
Mandatory license revocation	Language allows discretion on whether to revoke/impound license	Statute’s use of “shall” makes 2-year revocation mandatory upon felony conviction	Revocation is mandatory; plain error for not imposing; remanded for resentencing

State v. Barbeau, 301 Neb. 293 (traffic violations—no matter how minor—create probable cause for a stop)
State v. Moderow, 226 Neb. 470 (notice of suspension is proper if sent to DMV’s last-known address regardless of receipt)
State v. Armagost, 291 Neb. 117 (crime of operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest does not require completion of arrest)
State v. Collins, 307 Neb. 581 (statutory language requiring license revocation at sentencing)
State v. Irish, 298 Neb. 61 (usage of "shall" in statute is ordinarily mandatory, not discretionary)