State v. Watson, 2011 Ohio 5213

Watson was indicted for possession of drug abuse instruments and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia after a vehicle search where Watson was a passenger.
Watson moved to suppress the stop and subsequent seizure on November 16, 2010 and a supplemental motion on December 6, 2010; hearings were bifurcated and severed.
The trial court initially ruled the stop lawful, overruling Watson’s first motion on December 14, 2010.
The trial court sustained Watson’s supplemental motion on January 25, 2011, finding the time to secure a drug dog during the stop unreasonable.
The State sought clarification/reconsideration; after a scrivener’s error was corrected, the court reaffirmed its suppression ruling on March 22, 2011.
The State timely appealed to the Court of Appeals on March 23, 2011.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Standing to challenge the sniff	Watson	Watson	The issue is overruled; standing accepted.
Reasonableness of time to write ticket and conduct sniff	Watson	Watson	The issue is overruled; time deemed unreasonable was not properly preserved.

State v. Hopfer, 112 Ohio App.3d 521 (1996) (trial court as trier of fact; standard of review for suppression)
State v. Venham, 96 Ohio App.3d 649 (1994) (procedural framework for suppression issues)
State v. Retherford, 93 Ohio App.3d 586 (1994) (credibility and findings of fact; defer to trial court on facts)
State v. Isaac, 2005-Ohio-3733 (2005) (appellate review of suppression with factual fidelity)
State v. Lipscomb, 2008-Ohio-6235 (2008) (preservation and sufficiency of transcript for review)
State v. Matthews, 2009-Ohio-1289 (2009) (appellate review standards for suppression motions)
State v. Demus, 2011-Ohio-124 (2011) (standard for reviewing suppression, appellate authority)