State v. Bowers
Annotate this CaseThis case arose when defendant was arrested and charged in county court with the misdemeanor offenses of possessing marijuana, possessing drug paraphernalia, and driving under the influence. Defendant filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained during the search that followed the stop, claiming that the stop was illegal because it was not based upon probable cause that she had committed a traffic infraction. At issue was the application of the fellow officer rule to testimony in a motion to suppress hearing where defendant was challenging the validity of the traffic stop. The court held that the fellow officer rule did not allow an officer who did not have firsthand knowledge of the traffic stop and was not involved in the investigation at the time to testify as to hearsay regarding what the initial officer who conducted the stop told him or her for the purpose of proving a violation of the traffic law so as to establish the validity of the initial stop. Therefore, the court disapproved of the Fourth district in Ferrer v. State and approved the decision of the Second District in Bowers v. State.
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