State v. Benitez
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
NO. 22973 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF HAWAI#I STATE OF HAWAI#I, Plaintiff-Appellee vs. ANTHONY BENITEZ, aka Anthony Richardson, Defendant-Appellant APPEAL FROM THE FIRST CIRCUIT COURT (CR. NO. 98-2022) (By: SUMMARY DISPOSITION ORDER Moon, C.J., Levinson, Nakayama, Ramil, and Acoba JJ.) Defendant-appellant Anthony Benitez appeals from the judgment of conviction and sentence for one count of promoting a dangerous drug in the third degree in violation of Hawai#i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 712-1243 (1993 & Supp. 1998), and driving without a license in violation of HRS § 286-102 (1993 & Supp. 1998). On appeal, he argues that the circuit court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence found pursuant to a traffic stop and eventual arrest by Officer Patrick Maher. Upon careful review of the record and the briefs submitted by the parties, we resolve defendant-appellant s argument as follows: Maher validly stopped Benitez when he had reasonable and articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences drawn from those facts, created reasonable suspicion that a traffic violation occurred. Therefore, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the trial court s judgment of conviction is affirmed. DATED: Honolulu, Hawai#i, October 17, 2000. Joseph R. Mottl, III for defendant-appellant Mangmang Qiu Brown, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, for plaintiff-appellee
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
