STATE OF NEW JERSEY v. FRANK DELEONARDIS

 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE

APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY

APPELLATE DIVISION

DOCKET NO. A-6075-04T36075-04T3

STATE OF NEW JERSEY,

Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.

FRANK DELEONARDIS,

Defendant-Appellant.

____________________________________

 

Submitted March 7, 2006 - Decided March 21, 2006

Before Judges Skillman and Payne.

On appeal from Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Morris County, Docket No. 04-033.

Frank DeLeonardis, appellant, pro se.

Michael M. Rubbinaccio, Morris County Prosecutor, attorney for respondent (Paula Jordao, Assistant Prosecutor, on the brief).

PER CURIAM

Defendant was charged in the Long Hill Township Municipal Court with driving while intoxicated, in violation of N.J.S.A. 39:4-50, and other motor vehicle offenses. Defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence against him on the ground that the police did not have the reasonable, articulable suspicion of a motor vehicle violation required to justify a stop. The municipal court denied defendant's motion.

Defendant then entered a conditional guilty plea, which preserved his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. The municipal court suspended defendant's motor vehicle license for seven months, imposed a fine of $306, required defendant to attend an Intoxicated Driver Resource Center for twelve hours, and imposed the statutorily mandated assessments and fees.

On defendant's appeal, the Law Division affirmed the denial of his motion to suppress and reimposed the same sentence imposed by the municipal court.

On appeal to this court, defendant's sole argument is that the police officer who stopped his vehicle "did not have sufficient probable cause" to justify the stop. However, to stop a motor vehicle, a police officer is only required to have "an articulable and reasonable suspicion that the driver has committed a motor vehicle offense." State v. Golotta, 178 N.J. 205, 213 (2003) (quoting State v. Locurto, 157 N.J. 463, 470 (1999)). "The 'reasonable suspicion necessary to justify an investigatory stop is a lower standard than the probable cause necessary to sustain an arrest.'" Ibid. (quoting State v. Stovall, 170 N.J. 346, 356 (2002)). The determination whether a police officer had the articulable and reasonable suspicion required to justify an investigatory stop depends on the "totality of the circumstances." State v. Pineiro, 181 N.J. 13, 22 (2004). In this case, Officer Allen's observations of defendant's swerving while driving his motor vehicle, stopping for eighteen seconds at a green light and then driving over the middle line for fifty feet, gave rise to the reasonable suspicion that defendant was driving under the influence or was otherwise impaired required to justify an investigatory stop.

Affirmed.

 

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A-6075-04T3

March 21, 2006