Cop’s ‘hunch’ didn’t justify traffic stop that led to Mechanicsburg woman’s DUI conviction, Pa. court says

Police lights

police lights thinkstock photos EJAEJA

A police officer’s mere “hunch” that something illegal was afoot didn’t justify a traffic stop that led to a Cumberland County woman’s conviction and prison sentence for drunken driving, a state Superior Court panel has ruled.

So, in an opinion by Judge Deborah Kunselman, the state court overturned Amy Wallett’s DUI conviction and jail term, ordered suppression of the evidence gained from the stop in Lower Allen Township and sent the case back to county court for what is likely to be an acquittal.

Wallett, 25, of Mechanicsburg, was pulled over in November 2018 by an officer who was dispatched to a call about an illegal fireworks display, Kunselman noted. She said the officer began following Wallett’s car and later testified she became convinced Wallett was “trying to give her the slip” by turning down several streets.

“From the officer’s observations, Ms. Wallett violated no traffic laws, exhibited no indications that she was DUI, and had no apparent damage or other defect on her car that would prompt the officer to lend aid,” Kunselman wrote.

She noted the officer testified that she was especially suspicious because burglaries had occurred in the neighborhood through which Wallett was driving.

“The officer offered no testimony to substantiate her logic,” the judge wrote. “Nothing tied Ms. Wallett…to either the fireworks investigation or the months-old burglary, beyond the officer’s subjective belief that Ms. Wallet’s route was odd.”

Wallett was convicted of DUI and sentenced to 3 days to 6 months in prison after a county judge found the officer had “reasonable suspicion” to pull her over. That call “explicitly disregarded” the civil rights protections of the U.S. and the Pennsylvania constitutions, Kunselman concluded.

“The officer’s suspicion that Ms. Wallett must have been up to something, because she was driving around the area in a pattern that the officer considered odd, is nothing more than a hunch that Ms. Wallett might be up to something illegal,” Kunselman wrote. “This officer merely saw a woman driving her car at night. Ms. Wallett was free to do so with her constitutional rights intact.”