Anonymous Informants

The police were called to a disturbance at a motel based upon information from any anonymous informant. They arrived one minute later and observed two men standing in the parking lot.  They did not see any violations of the law occurring.  When the officers arrived, they activated their overhead red and blue lights despite the fact that they did not see any violations of the law.  They contacted the Defendant who said he had driven their earlier.  Officers saw what they thought was signs of impairment.  Defendant was arrested and did a blood test. The result was .272.

Information from anonymous informants is not deemed reliable as a matter of law, I argued that the officers’ activation of their overhead red and blue lights constituted a Fourth Amendment seizure.  I set the case for a hearing on that issue.  This argument was enough to get the District Attorney to agree to dismiss all the alcohol-related charges in exchange for a plea of guilty to Reckless Driving with unsupervised probation.