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State v. Bethel

The arresting officer had authority to arrest the defendant when he saw the defendant commit a traffic violation, even though the officer was outside his territorial jurisdiction.

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The State appeals from the trial court’s order granting Terrance Bethel’s motion to suppress marijuana found in his car after a traffic stop. The trial court granted the motion to suppress after holding that the police officer was outside his jurisdiction when he made the traffic stop. The law is clear, however, that an officer may arrest a person violating any law concerning the operation of a vehicle, regardless of territorial limitations, provided the offense occurs in the officer’s presence. Accordingly, the trial court erred in granting Bethel’s motion to suppress. The record shows that Officer Turner, a Tallapoosa city police officer, was parked in the median of I-20 observing traffic traveling westbound on the interstate. Turner stopped Bethel’s car after he saw Bethel make an improper lane change in front of a tractor-trailer. Bethel was extremely nervous and smelled of alcohol. Turner gave Bethel an alco-sensor test which was negative, and then asked Bethel if he could search his car. Turner said the car smelled so strongly of alcohol that he thought Bethel had thrown an open container under the seat. Bethel consented to the search and Turner found marijuana in Bethel’s trunk.

Turner filed a motion to suppress the marijuana, claiming that the stop was made without articulable suspicion, that his consent was not voluntarily given, that the consent was the result of an unlawful extension of the initial stop, and that the officer was outside his jurisdiction when he made the traffic stop. The court granted the motion on the basis of Bethel’s argument that the officer was outside his jurisdiction and therefore was without legal authority to stop him.1 The State now appeals.

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