Judge Throws Out Dope From Traffic Stop

January 24, 2011

‘Maybe’ isn’t good enough when it comes to someone waiving their constitutional rights during a police stop.

Last summer Jose Rodriquez of Los Angeles got busted for speeding on I-80 in Lincoln and state troopers found 56 pounds of alleged pot in his car.

Rodriquez signed a form giving cops permission to search the vehicle, but Lancaster County District Judge Karen Flowers says the marijuana can’t be used as evidence because it isn’t clear that he understood what he was signing.

Trooper Mark White testified that he’d been instructed on how to do a traffic stop in Spanish and had done it 50 times or so. However, videotape of the bust showed he and Rodriquez had a hard time communicating.

Flowers noted White’s testifying about having had lessons and experience in Spanish-language traffic arrests.

“….That may be true, but this wasn't just a basic traffic stop. This was a stop in which White asked Rodriguez to waive one of his constitutional rights."

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/di ... ce49a75547