State v. EwoldtState v. Ewoldt
On June 11, 1988, two city police officers recognized Shawn Ewoldt driving his white Trans Am within the city limits of Audubon. The officers knew that Ewoldt had recently been arrested for OWI and that his driver’s license might be under revocation. They asked the police dispatcher to run a computer check on Ewoldt and were informed that both an automatic check and a manual check showed that his license had been revoked, prohibiting him from driving between June 3 and November 30, 1988. Relying on this information, the officers stopped Ewoldt and noticed physical signs of intoxication. Subsequently, Ewoldt failed some standard field sobriety tests, recited the alphabet incorrectly, and submitted to an Intoxilyzer test that indicated an alcohol concentration of .143.
Later, the computer data the officers relied on in stopping Ewoldt proved to have been incorrect. Ewoldt’s license had indeed been revoked, but Department of Transportation documentation dated May 11, 1988, reveals that the revocation was not to take effect until July 10, 1988. At the time the officers stopped him, Ewoldt was driving with a valid temporary permit issued by the Department of Transportation. Ewoldt filed a motion to suppress all evidence gained as a result of the investigatory stop. The trial court sustained the motion holding that “no reasonable grounds or probable cause existed for the initial stop of defendant’s car.”
In this discretionary review action the State challenges that order. Acknowledging that the officers relied on computer data later found to be inaccurate, the State contends that the stop of Ewoldt’s car was nevertheless constitutionally permissible because the information in the officers’ possession at that time constituted “specific and articulable cause to support a reasonable belief that criminal activity may have occurred,” thus satisfying the standard articulated in
State v. Lamp,
Standard of Review.
When confronted with an alleged constitutional violation, we resolve the issue by making our own independent evaluation of the totality of the circumstances.
State v. Johnson,
Defendant alleges a violation of his fourth amendment rights. The governing constitutional principles are well settled. The law, as outlined in
State v. Aschenbrenner,
An officer must have reasonable cause to stop a vehicle. In order to establish reasonable cause when the grounds are challenged, the State must show that the officer had specific and articulable cause to support a reasonable belief that criminal activity may have occurred. Officers are bound by their true reason for making the stop. They may not rely on reasons they could have had but did not actually have. If the State fails in its burden, evidence taken as a result of the stop must be suppressed, (citations omitted)
Circumstances giving rise to suspicion or curiosity will not suffice.
State v. Dixon,
Reasonableness of Stop.
Ewoldt contends that knowledge of the inaccuracy of the Department of Transportation’s records should be imputed to the officers who stopped him, thus making the stop unreasonable. Our review of the law reveals no Iowa case law that addresses this issue. The officers in this case had specific and articulable cause to support a reasonable belief that criminal activity may have
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occurred. It is a crime to drive a car while one’s license is revoked.
The Audubon County Sheriff’s office was equipped with a computer that could access the data of the Departments of Public Safety and Transportation. The officers requested both an automatic and manual check on the status of Ewoldt’s driver’s license and they were informed that Ewoldt’s license had been revoked. A police officer's sources of information must be reasonably trustworthy.
State v. Morris,
REVERSED.