Officer Can Ask About Contraband, Weapons Before Completing Traffic Stop

U.S. v. Valenzuela, 2007 WL 2007553 (7/12/07)(Published) - The 10th gives the green light to avoiding the whole tedious rigamarole of waiting until after returning the documents following a traffic stop and then asking whether there is any contraband in the vehicle and then asking for consent. In this case, the 10th says it was okay for the officer to ask those questions before he started going through his citation issuing procedures. The questions did not "appreciably" extend the duration of the stop. The defendant did not challenge the voluntariness of the ensuing consent. The 10th ruled the initial stop was okay where the defendant once crossed into the right lane from the left lane about three or four feet and straddled the lane line for several seconds. The defendant did not have an excuse for doing so, unlike in U.S. v. Gregory, 79 F.3d 973 (10th Cir. 1996), where the driver drifted onto the shoulder [not another lane] on a winding mountainous road on a windy day.