Q: Can a passengers rights to a “terry Pat” be denied if driver is found with illegal substance on their person’s?
Police pulled over a vehicle with 2 individuals, the driver of the vehicles was detained on driving with out a license. A drug dog ran the car 3 times with no hit. The police told the passenger he was free to go, but then asked if they could search the passenger, passenger states a “terry pat” only, the officer declined, stating that they had found illegal substance on the driver and he would do a full search. There was not any illegal substance found at the time they denied him a “terry pat”. Is this in violation of the 4th amendment, and grounds for a motion to suppress the evidence?
A:
Kind of a weird answer for the passenger to give the cop I'd say, but I would definitely file a Motion to Suppress anything found on the passenger since the cop went ahead and denied a
"Terry" pat down and went ahead with a full-blown search without probable cause.
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