Louisville judge on traffic stop: Constitution protects drivers on both sides of town

As a circuit judge for 10 years, Brian Edwards says he's "well aware of the troubling levels of gun and drug-related violence in west Louisville."

But after throwing out evidence seized after a traffic stop in the Park DuValle neighborhood, Edwards said, "This does not mean that citizens driving in west Louisville should be subjected to a lesser degree of constitutional protection than citizens driving in other parts our community."

Edwards' ruling in 2016 came in a traffic stop and search strikingly similar to the one executed last summer by Louisville Metro police against 18-year-old Tae-Ahn Lea, who was pulled from his car, frisked and handcuffed after a minor traffic violation.

That stop has been condemned by civil rights leaders, Metro Council members and policing experts, who say it was grossly disproportionate to his alleged offense and was the type of policing that destroys community trust.

Edwards was asked to consider the case of Garrett Johnson-Trumbo, 30, who was stopped in December 2016 for reportedly disregarding a stop sign.

See also:Traffic stops don't reduce crime. But Louisville police insist they work

Asked to produce his license, registration and insurance card, Johnson-Trumbo cooperated. Ninth Mobile Division Officer George Campos ran a check and confirmed that Johnson-Trumbo had no outstanding warrants and the car was not stolen.

While the car was rented and Campos professed concern that Johnson-Trumbo couldn't produce the rental agreement — he said his mother had rented it — Edwards noted the officer didn't call the rental company or Johnson-Trumbo's mother.

Instead, after Johnson-Trumbo declined permission to search the car, Campos called in a drug-sniffing dog.

Ten minutes later, the canine unit arrived, Johnson-Trumbo and his passengers were ordered out of the car, and the dog indicated it detected drugs inside. Campos' partner, Chris Frisby, said he detected the odor of marijuana.

Police frisked all the occupants and found pot on one of the passengers. Campos also discovered a handgun under the driver’s seat.

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The officers arrested Johnson-Trumbo and charged him with possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and failure to stop at the stop sign.

But was the search legal?

The prosecution said the canine unit was brought in in a timely manner and that the dog’s alert gave the officers probable cause to search the car, as did the smell of pot and finding it on the passenger.

But Edwards noted the Supreme Court has ruled that police cannot extend a traffic stop to bring in a drug-sniffing dog. He also found that the officers lacked a reasonable suspicion to justify ordering the driver and passengers out of the car, or to pat them down.

While the Supreme Court has said removing the occupants of a car during a routine traffic stop can be justified to reduce the risk of harm to an officer, there was no evidence that Johnston-Trumbo was "anything other than cooperative."

Edwards ordered the evidence suppressed as the "fruit of a poisonous tree," and the commonwealth’s attorney’s office had to dismiss both charges.

Both officers were members of the Ninth Mobile Division, the same unit that stopped and searched Lea, who also was removed from his car and also refused permission for a search of his vehicle. Lea's vehicle was searched anyway — also after a canine allegedly alerted to contraband inside.

Read more:LMPD handcuffed a black teen for a wide turn, then told him to 'quit with the attitude'

The two stops took place about a mile apart.

Lamont Washington, a spokesman for the Louisville Metro Police Department, said Chief Steve Conrad wasn’t familiar with the case but has decided to initiate an investigation by the Professional Standards Unit.

Conrad has defended the aggressive use of traffic stops in high crime areas, saying they reduce violent crime, in part by getting illegal guns off the street.

Edwards wrote in his nine-page opinion and order that "this court appreciates the challenges that the 9th Mobile Unit faces in its efforts to curtail gun crimes and violence in west Louisville. However, that does not make this constitutional. 

"For Americans, regardless of what part of town they may find themselves driving,” Edwards said, "the Constitution and the protections it affords is one size fits all. What is protected activity on one side of town must be deemed protected activity on all sides of town."

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson.  Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/andreww.