State v. Rivera, 297 Neb. 709

At ~10:35 p.m. two Nebraska Game and Parks conservation officers encountered groups of people on opposite sides of an unmarked recreation road at Branched Oak Lake; it was very dark.
Officers parked a marked patrol vehicle on the right side of the road; one officer approached the groups while the other returned to the vehicle to call dispatch.
Jonathan Rivera approached in his truck, passed the patrol vehicle onto the grassy shoulder, slowed, and stopped with his truck front even with the patrol vehicle; the group of people was 15–20 feet away.
A uniformed officer (badge visible, firearm holstered) walked to Rivera, told him he would move the patrol vehicle if Rivera waited a few minutes, noted bloodshot/watery eyes and slurred speech, asked about drinking, and then detained Rivera for a DUI investigation leading to arrest.
Rivera moved to suppress evidence claiming an unlawful seizure; the county court denied the motion relying on the community-caretaking exception; the district court and Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed.
The Nebraska Supreme Court granted further review, held no seizure occurred at the encounter’s start (so the community-caretaking exception was unnecessary), and affirmed the Court of Appeals’ result on that basis.

Issue	Rivera's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Whether the initial officer contact was a Fourth Amendment seizure	Officer’s approach and statement caused Rivera to stop; community-caretaking exception justified contact	Rivera stopped voluntarily; officer did not use force, lights, siren, or gesture commanding him to stop	No seizure occurred at commencement; encounter was a consensual (first-tier) encounter
Whether community-caretaking exception justified detention/contact	Court of Appeals expanded exception improperly; exception should be narrow	Exception applied (lower courts relied on it)	Exception unnecessary because no seizure occurred; denial of suppression upheld on independent ground
Whether officer’s observations provided reasonable suspicion to detain for DUI	N/A (challenge focused on initial stop)	Officer’s observations (bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, admission of drinking) gave reasonable suspicion	After consensual contact, it escalated to a second-tier encounter and reasonable suspicion justified detention
Whether officer’s subjective intent matters to seizure analysis	Officer intended to stop Rivera, so seizure occurred	Officer’s subjective intent is irrelevant; objective circumstances control	Subjective intent irrelevant; objective facts showed no show of authority causing submission

State v. Bakewell, 273 Neb. 372 (discussing narrow application of community-caretaking exception)
State v. Rogers, 297 Neb. 265 (defining tiers of police-citizen encounters and seizure standards)
State v. Avey, 288 Neb. 233 (Fourth Amendment seizure requires belief one is not free to leave)
State v. Hedgcock, 277 Neb. 805 (officer may effect seizure by show of authority; no seizure without submission)
State v. Lee, 290 Neb. 601 (appellate review of credibility and clear-error standard)
State v. Draganescu, 276 Neb. 448 (officer’s subjective intent irrelevant to seizure analysis)
State v. Kolbjornsen, 295 Neb. 231 (correct result will not be overturned for wrong reasoning)