Valenzuela

Following denial of his motion to suppress evidence (Pen. Code, § 1538.5), Lucio C. Valenzuela entered a negotiated *1204 guilty plea to possessing a controlled substance (Health & Saf. Code, § 11350, subd. (a)) and admitted a strike (Pen. Code, § 667, subds. (b)-(i)). The court sentenced him to 32 months in prison (twice the lower term). Valenzuela now appeals the denial of his suppression motion. We agree with his contention he was stopped on a pretext and therefore reverse the judgment.

The People’s Evidence

For over seven years, the sale and use of controlled substances at The End Zone Bar had posed a problem for the San Diego Police Department. During that period, San Diego Police Sergeant Michael Brogdon had made more than a dozen drug-related arrests there. Brogdon had extensive training on the subject of illicit drugs, had testified as an expert on drug-related issues over 200 times, and had made a total of more than 200 drug-related arrests. His 12-year tenure as a police officer included SVz years in the narcotics section, a 1-year stint with the walking enforcement campaign against narcotics, and 19 months as a vice detective buying controlled substances in…