California Court of Appeal

Denial of motion to suppress -- where police stopped defendant's car allegedly for a "burnt out" brake light, and where trial court declined to determine whether the car's lights were working, finding the existence of an outstanding warrant sufficient to support the search -- is reversed as fabricating the grounds for a traffic stop strikes at the very core of our system of law, and the subsequent discovery of lawful grounds to arrest and search the defendant does not dissipate the taint of such a flagrant violation of the defendant's rights.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/10/2006
• Published 10/10/2006

Judges

• JOHNSON, J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Richard L. Fitzer, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Los Angeles, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Jaime L. Fuster and Lance E. Winters, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.