Ohio Court of Appeals 6th District – Intentionally Stalling Traffic Stop for Dog was Unreasonable

State v. Werder, 2020-Ohio-2865, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1835 (6th Dist. May 8, 2020)

There was no reasonable suspicion to continue the stop in this case. The officer called for backup and a dog, and the first officer there told him to stall for the dog. Nothing was done for eight minutes to pursue the basis of the traffic stop.

The state did not argue that reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal activity arose during the traffic stop to justify further detaining Werder; it made no closing argument and filed no brief in opposition to Werder’s motion to suppress, despite the trial court’s apparent willingness to allow it to do so.

We conclude that Werder’s Fourth-Amendment rights were violated when Torbet extended the traffic stop to wait for the K-9 unit to arrive.