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Friday
Apr232010

Whitfield v. State (Fifth District Court of Appeals/ April 23rd, 2010)

Officer unreasonably detained defendant after stopping his vehicle for speeding; officer had completed all routine investigation within twelve minutes of traffic stop and, but for extended interrogation of defendant, there was no apparent reason why citation should not have been issued within short time thereafter, because officer decided he would confirm that defendant was contractually authorized to drive vehicle before issuing citation, eight-and-one-half minutes of thirty-minute detention were taken up with that question, it was not clear what criminal offense officer was holding defendant to investigate, officer had already confirmed that car was not stolen and no effort was made to determine that lessee had not given permission for defendant to use vehicle, and investigation extended traffic stop to more than twenty-eight minutes, which, coincidentally, was exactly same amount of time it took officer to get drug sniff dog on scene. 
Court threw out the cocaine that was found in the vehicle.