Idaho v. Garcia-Rodriguez

The State appealed the district court’s order suppressing evidence against Victor Garcia-Rodriguez. In 2014, Garcia-Rodriguez was pulled over after an Idaho State Police trooper witnessed Garcia-Rodriguez’s car briefly cross over the fog line while exiting Interstate 84. This stop ultimately led to Garcia-Rodriguez’s arrest. A search incident to arrest uncovered methamphetamine on his person, and Garcia-Rodriguez was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of paraphernalia. Garcia-Rodriguez filed a motion to suppress the evidence, which the district court granted. The State argued that the district court erred by suppressing the evidence because the stop was justified by reasonable suspicion, the arrest was justified by probable cause, and the search of Garcia-Rodriguez’s person was proper as a search incident to arrest. Because the Idaho Supreme Court decided this case on the issue of probable cause for the arrest and the subsequent search incident to arrest, it did not consider the issue of the initial stop. State consistently argued that Garcia-Rodriguez was arrested pursuant to Idaho Code section 49-301(1) for driving without a license and that the arresting officer reasonably concluded that Garcia-Rodriguez “would likely not appear in court, justifying [Garcia-Rodriguez’s] arrest pursuant to Idaho Code 49-301 and 49-1407(1).” That position was set forth in the State’s Affidavit in Support of Complaint or Warrant for Arrest, the State’s Memorandum Opposing Defendant’s Motion to Suppress under the heading “Basis for the Arrest,” and in the State’s Response to Defendant’s Reply to State’s Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Suppress, once again under the heading “Basis for the Arrest.” The State’s current argument that Idaho Code section 49-1407 was immaterial to the question of the constitutionality of the arrest was nowhere to be found. As such, the State’s argument that the arrest and search incident to arrest were constitutional based on probable cause regardless of state law statutory limitations was not properly before the Supreme Court. The State therefore waived its argument that Garcia-Rodriguez's arrest was justified pursuant to 49-1407(1). The Court therefore affirmed the district court. View "Idaho v. Garcia-Rodriguez" on Justia Law