By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C.- A man convicted of possessing cocaine after a police officer found drugs by shining a light down the suspect’s pants should get a new trial because the search was unreasonable, a North Carolina appellate court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling erases a sentence of 10 1/2 to 14 years in prison for Timothy Stone, who was convicted on charges of drug possession and being a habitual felon.
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer stopped and searched Stone after he and a companion drove away from a hotel at in October 2002.
Stone initially consented to the search, but objected when an officer pulled the sweat pants away from Stone’s body and aimed his flashlight at his groin area, where a pill bottle of crack cocaine was hidden.
The appeals court ruled that the trial judge should have suppressed the evidence from the search, a key element in the conviction.
“We conclude that a reasonable person in defendant’s circumstances would not have understood that he would be subjected to an inspection of his genitals,” Judge Linda McGee wrote in the majority opinion.
In the dissenting opinion, Judge Sanford Steelman wrote that Stone’s clothes weren’t removed such as in a strip search, which courts have earlier said requires probable cause or more specific consent from a suspect. Given the circumstances, including that the area where the car was stopped was known for a high incidence of drug offenses, the search “was objectively reasonable.”
The state Attorney General’s Office has not decided whether to appeal, spokeswoman Noelle Talley said.