Supreme Court of California

When a peace officer directs the driver of a vehicle to pull over for a traffic stop but, in effecting the stop, gives no indication that the passenger of the vehicle is the focus of the officer's investigation or show of authority, the passenger is not subjected to a "seizure" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment in the absence of additional circumstances that would indicate to a reasonable person that he or she was the subject of the peace officer's investigation or show of authority. In conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine, order to suppress evidence seized from defendant's person and from the vehicle in which he was a passenger is reversed where, in applying the factors of Brown v. Illinois, the outstanding warrant, which was discovered prior to any search of defendant's person or of the vehicle, sufficiently attenuated the taint of the unlawful traffic stop.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/24/2008
• Published 11/24/2008

Judges

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel