Continued Detention At Traffic Stop OK Where Defendant Nervous, Etc.

U.S. v. Wisniewski, 2006 WL (8/16/06)(unpub'd) - Another very thin reasonable suspicion case. It was okay to continue to detain the defendant after the purposes of the traffic stop were resolved where the defendant was extremely nervous, the truck was registered to a third party whose name the defendant could not pronounce, there was a strong odor of air freshener and most convincingly, the defendant claimed to be coming from Las Vegas where he was looking for construction work, but his hands were not those of a construction worker (they were smooth, not rough and calloused)(maybe he used very effective hand cream or he just wasn't a very hard-working construction worker). The 10th refused to resolve the factual question whether the detaining officer could actually see the defendant's stomach churning, as the officer claimed.