Q: Do cops have to asked for your driver license, registration and insurance?
I was involved in an incident at a motel with an ex-girlfriend. Two males got involved and I left. Instead of going home, I drove less than 10 seconds to a parking lot of a closed business in order to look inside my car for my cell phone which became lost. Unknown to me someone called 911 at 11:08 pm as I left. At 11:14 pm, the officer responding to the 911 call saw my "black Nissan" in the parking lot and initiated contact with me. The facts show that she asked me to identify myself by name and birthdate, she never asked for my driver license, registration or insurance. I am video recorded telling a DUI investigator that “ I do not feel comfortable doing a sobriety test because I was detained for over a hour and not told why". She fabricated a DUI traffic stop.
A:
A peace officer is not required to ask for a drivers license, registration or insurance when investigating a crime. A person operating a motor vehicle on a public roadway is required to provide that information upon request by a peace officer, but a peace officer is not obligated to ask for it.
It does not appear that the peace officer made a traffic stop as, form your own account, you were already parked when the peace officer arrived. While it is not necessary that a peace officer personally observed you driving a motor vehicle to investigate, and make an arrest for, a suspected DUI, the prosecutor at trial will have to offer evidence, which can be circumstantial, that you were operating a motor vehicle on a public roadway while under the influence.
This evidence might be eyewitness testimony from our ex-girlfriend that you were physically present at the motel at 11:00 p.m., that you left in your black Nissan, that the peace officer located you and your black Nissan in a parking lot of a nearby business ten seconds away from the motel at 11:14 p.m., that there exists a public roadway between the motel and the parking lot where you were encountered, and that you appeared to be intoxicated based on the peace officer's observation and/or your ex-girlfriend's observation of you. That circumstantial evidence likely would be sufficient for a rational trier of fact to conclude that you operated the motor vehicle on a public roadway while intoxicated.
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