Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995 TAG: 9509180039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The court also ruled that a jury in civil cases can be told that a witness was convicted of a felony, but the nature of the crime cannot be disclosed.
In the drunken driving case, State Trooper J.R. Lyons arrested Jeter Ray Barrett after noticing his pickup truck traveling along a Northumberland County highway with two wheels on the shoulder and two on an adjacent yard.
Lyons stopped the truck to see if there was a problem and noticed the smell of alcohol on Barrett's breath. He arrested Barrett, who flunked field sobriety and blood-alcohol tests.
Barrett was convicted of drunken driving but appealed, claiming Lyons had no reason to suspect a crime was being committed and that the arrest violated the prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.
A three-judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals agreed and reversed the conviction, but the full court reheard the case and upheld the trial court. The appeal to the Supreme Court followed.
Lyons claimed he had a right to make the stop under the ``community caretaking'' doctrine, which acknowledges that police not actively investigating a crime sometimes stumble upon evidence of one. The doctrine has never been used to validate investigative stops, the Supreme Court said.
In reversing the conviction, the court cited a 1988 case in which a police officer illegally stopped a car after becoming suspicious when the driver and passenger switched places.
``We conclude that Barrett's odd conduct, without more, did not give rise to a reasonable suspicion, based on objective facts, that he needed police assistance,'' Justice Henry H. Whiting wrote in the unanimous opinion.
The court did not decide whether the ``community caretaking'' doctrine can be applied when evidence is sufficient to show the detained person needed police help.
In the other ruling, the court unanimously agreed that a rule barring disclosure of details of a witness's felony conviction in criminal cases also applies to civil cases.
The appeal was brought by Janet L. Payne, who was injured in a traffic accident. A Fauquier County jury refused to award damages in her civil suit after the defendant's lawyer mentioned that she had been convicted of a fraud-related felony.
The Supreme Court said the attempt to raise doubts about her credibility went too far.
by CNB