People v. Bell

A “K-9” officer stopped the car in which defendant was the passenger for speeding. The officer talked to the driver while writing a ticket, then talked separately to defendant. Because he suspected they were transporting drugs, he asked both men for consent to search; defendant agreed that the officer could search his baggage, which was in the trunk. The officer directed his drug-sniffing dog, Rycon, to sniff the trunk. However, Rycon turned up his nose, so to speak, at the trunk; instead, he trotted to the passenger-side door, which defendant had left open, and alerted to the area under defendant’s seat. There the officer found a package of cocaine.

After defendant’s motion to suppress (Pen. Code, § 1538.5) was denied, he pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for sale (Health & Saf. Code, § 11351). In this appeal, he contends:

We hold that the trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress. Defendant is entitled to challenge the driver’s detention because he and the driver were both detained at the same time, but the officer’s questioning did not unlawfully prolong the driver’s detention. As a result of that questioning, the officer had sufficient…