Massey v. Texas (original by judge yeary)
Annotate this CaseAfter legally detaining Appellant James Massey for lack of a proper registration sticker on his truck, an officer conducted an investigative pat-down search of Appellant. When Appellant forcefully resisted that search, the officer tased and handcuffed him. The officer subsequently discovered methamphetamine on the ground near where Appellant had been standing. Appellant moved to suppress the methamphetamine. In response to that motion, the trial court decided that the officer’s investigative pat-down search (a "Terry" search) was illegal. But the trial court nevertheless concluded that the taint of the illegal Terry search was attenuated by Appellant’s commission of the dual offenses of resisting search and evading detention. As a result, the trial court denied his motion. The court of appeals reversed, finding Appellant’s commission of resisting search and evading detention in response to the officer’s unlawful pat-down did not constitute “a severe departure from the common, if regrettable, range of responses” that should be expected. It therefore concluded that these offenses did not “constitute intervening circumstances” for purposes of an attenuation-of-taint analysis. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals determined the trial court properly denied Appellant’s motion to suppress the methamphetamine. Accordingly, the court of appeals judgment was reversed.
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