State v. Saunders, 2018 Ohio 2624

At ~1:15 AM an officer encountered Joshua D. Saunders walking on a roadway near a trailer complex, observed staggering, slurred speech, and glassy eyes.
Officer initiated contact as a welfare check; Saunders was asked to stop and to identify himself but refused to provide ID beyond his first name.
Saunders kept his hands in his front pockets and looked toward exits; officer repeatedly asked him to remove his hands and eventually grabbed his wrist when Saunders refused.
A struggle ensued; officer placed Saunders in a hold, called for backup, and handcuffed him after assistance arrived.
After Saunders admitted he had a knife, officer conducted a pat-down and then emptied Saunders’s pockets for officer safety; an Altoids tin recovered from his pocket contained methamphetamine.
Saunders was indicted for possession of methamphetamine; he moved to suppress the evidence, the trial court denied the motion, Saunders pled no contest, was convicted, and appealed the suppression ruling.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (State)	Defendant's Argument (Saunders)	Held
Whether officer’s initial contact was a consensual encounter	Contact was a welfare check and thus consensual; officer was free to approach and ask questions	Contact escalated into a seizure without reasonable suspicion	Initial contact was a valid consensual encounter
Whether the encounter lawfully escalated to a Terry stop	Officer observed staggering, slurred speech, glassy eyes, and refusal to remove hands—giving reasonable, articulable suspicion of public intoxication or danger	Officer lacked reasonable suspicion to detain; evidence was obtained after unlawful seizure	Totality of circumstances supported reasonable, articulable suspicion; consensual encounter validly expanded into a Terry stop
Whether the search of pockets was lawful for officer safety	After disclosure of a knife and inability to identify location by pat-down, emptying pockets was reasonable for officer safety	The pocket search exceeded a lawful frisk and was an unreasonable search	Pocket-emptying for officer safety was justified; evidence admissible
Whether suppression should be granted for Fourth Amendment violation	Evidence was obtained incident to a lawful stop and safety search; no violation	Evidence should be suppressed due to unlawful detention/search	Motion to suppress was properly denied; conviction affirmed

Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (constitutional standard for investigative stops)
Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429 (consensual encounters vs. seizures)
Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491 (totality of circumstances in consensual encounters)
Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690 (de novo appellate review of reasonable suspicion/probable cause)
State v. Andrews, 57 Ohio St.3d 86 (Ohio constitutional protections for search and seizure)
State v. Bobo, 37 Ohio St.3d 177 (totality of the circumstances for investigative stops)