People v. Velazquez CA3

I. BACKGROUND

Michael Cascio, a police officer for the City of Lodi, responded in his patrol car to a report of a man sitting in a gold Chevrolet sedan watching people at a park. When Officer Cascio arrived at the park, he saw defendant driving a gold Chevrolet Malibu. Officer Cascio was driving the opposite direction, so he made a U-turn at an intersection to follow defendant. Defendant then pulled over to the curb, and Officer Cascio pulled over behind defendant, got out of his patrol car, and walked up to stand next to defendant’s driver-side window. From there, Officer Cascio could see a machete, blade pointing down, leaning against the passenger seat. Officer Cascio asked defendant to get out of the car. When defendant complied, Officer Cascio escorted defendant to the back of the car to conduct a pat-down search. At that point, Officer Cascio had not seen defendant commit any violation of the law; he acknowledged he “would not have had legal grounds to stop [defendant]” had defendant tried to leave. After escorting defendant to the back of the car, Officer Cascio asked defendant if he could pat him down. Defendant said, “yeah,” and held his arms away from his torso. Officer…