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Rocha v. State

The search in which officers found a black duffle bag containing over 14 kilograms of cocaine was not the product of an impermissibly prolonged traffic stop.

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Following a stipulated bench trial, Pete Rocha was convicted of trafficking in cocaine. On appeal, Rocha contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the drug evidence, arguing that his consent to the search of his vehicle and the resulting seizure of the cocaine was the product of an impermissibly prolonged traffic stop. He further argues that without the unlawfully seized cocaine, the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction. For the reasons set forth infra, we affirm.

Construing the evidence to uphold the trial court’s findings and judgment,1 the record shows that around 10:00 a.m. on September 20, 2005, a Douglas County Sheriff’s Department deputy, who was on traffic patrol on Interstate 20, observed a large commercial passenger bus that did not bear either an operating company’s trade name or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration “FMCSA” identification number as required by the United States DOT.2 The deputy then began following the bus, ran a computer check on the bus’s Texas license tag number as he followed, and determined that the tag had expired in 2003. Consequently, the deputy initiated a traffic stop.

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