4th Amendment Lives! - Utah Judge rules "We're not a police state yet"
Posted May 14th, 2008 by SDJoseph
output
Anyone want to set up a RateMyJudge.com ?? :)
http://www.ratemycop.com/...
http://www.utahduilawblog...
The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 05/08/2008 02:18:46 PM MDT
Posted: 2:20 PM- LOGAN -- A judge threw out a drunken-driving charge in a case that involved bare bottoms and a defiant step on the gas.
Police stopped Nicholas Johnson, 22, after he revved his pickup truck in response to friends who mooned him at a traffic stop.
An officer smelled alcohol and arrested Johnson, who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13 percent, above Utah's legal threshold.
But defense attorney Glen Neeley claimed the officer had no probable cause to stop the pickup truck last September in North Logan. First District Judge Clint Judkins agreed.
"We're not a police state yet," Judkins said Wednesday. "Revving your engine is not illegal.
"This has to be looked at through two windows. The first being that the police officer was on the street simply doing his job, the other is a person's Fourth Amendment right," the judge said, referring to an unreasonable search.
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Thank God
It's so good to hear this. It gives me hope. I wonder about the "yet" part?
A Judge with Merit
How rare and inspiring. Peace be unto this man and his generations.
"Walls are stronger than the men that defend them."
Ghengis Khan
I guess there are some
I guess there are some constitutionalists out there.
Gee, I didn't know
there were any judges left that knew anything about the Constitution.
There is hope?
Aku Soku Zan
A moment of sanity...
...from our police.
Amazing.
Correction: The sanity was from the judge
The policeman was the one overstepping his bounds.
Hard to believe this is Utah
They were one of the first states to have "special traffic details" at about the time the Bars Closed.
Then again, Logan, UT is just a stones throw from Idaho. Maybe we will get good news May 27th.
If cops would stop doing
If cops would stop doing stupid things like chasing after engine r e v v e rs and arresting people with pocket card Constitutions in their cars they would get a lot more respect.
Cops and the Police State
I just has this conversation with my sister, in which I pointed out how, little by little, it seems over the last ten or twenty years there has been a great increase in both the severity of penalties and punishment for any given law (especially smaller ones), as well as an increase in both the level of enforceement and the arbitrariness of enforcement of laws.
How can the facts that the right to protest is all but dead, cops stop people at random and taser them without the least provication, and the USA has the highest percentage of incarcerated citizens IN THE WORLD not make everyone outraged?!
Revving Your Engine is Illegal Where I Live
Also illegal to honk your horn in support of peace protestors, Ron Paul supporters, or for any other reason other than a traffic-related cause.
IMissLiberty
That is horrible. Also,
That is horrible. Also, being .13 over the drinking limit is sure cutting it close. How silly..13/100ths not too bad.
Gee, that sucks
What'd they do if you walked out on your deck and started emptying a shotgun doing some target practice?
probably a phone call from the Sheriff
Politely asking me to stop, as it would be 45 minutes before he had back up! lol! I love the boonies, and I live "downtown" in the boonies.
Hee hee...
Where I live, Jeff, that would result in my neighbors coming over with beer and more hardware... :)
Yours in Liberty,
Shovel
where I live
Fortune Favors the Bold
that would result in a swat team coming to your house