Pubdate: Tue, 07 May 2002
Source: The Southeast Missourian (MO)
Copyright: 2002, Southeast Missourian
Contact: http://www.semissourian.com/opinion/speakout/submit/
Website: http://www.semissourian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1322
Author: Marc Powers

APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS DRUG CONVICTIONS

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A state appeals court has ruled that a state trooper 
lacked probable cause to initiate a traffic stop in Pemiscot County that 
resulted in a woman being sentenced to 14 years in prison on drug charges.

The ruling, issued Friday by a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of 
Appeals Southern District, reverses Veronica Mendoza's convictions for 
possession of a controlled substance and drug trafficking in the first degree.

Dunklin County Associate Circuit Court Judge Dan J. Crawford found Mendoza 
guilty of the charges following a bench trial. Crawford had overruled 
Mendoza's motion to suppress the evidence used against her. Mendoza claimed 
the evidence resulted from an illegal traffic stop.

On the evening of Jan. 5, 2000, Mendoza and a friend were driving on 
Interstate 55 in Pemiscot County when they were stopped by Sgt. Jeffrey L. 
Heath of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

During a search of Mendoza's vehicle, a drug-sniffing dog led Heath and 
other officers to the discovery of 111 pounds of marijuana.

At Mendoza's trial, Heath testified that he stopped the vehicle, driven by 
Mendoza's friend, because it was traveling in the left-hand lane as it went 
by his patrol car, which was parked on the shoulder, but was not passing a 
slower-moving vehicle. State law requires vehicles to travel in the 
right-hand lane, except when passing or preparing to make a left-hand turn.

Mendoza said the driver moved to the left lane to give the trooper a wide 
berth, a common motorist courtesy that state lawmakers are currently 
considering making a requirement.

Heath acknowledged at trial that motorists sometimes move to the passing 
lane when they notice him parked on the shoulder. He said the vehicle in 
this instance didn't "cause a traffic hazard in any way" by traveling in 
the left lane.

Mendoza claimed the stop was merely a pretext to search for drugs and that 
the trooper had racially profiled her and her companion because they were 
Hispanics traveling in a vehicle with California license plates.

Because the appeals court found that Heath lacked probable cause or 
reasonable suspicion for a stop simply because the vehicle was in the 
passing lane, it didn't address the racial profiling claim.
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