Fishing Expedition

US v. Marquez-Diaz, 2009 WL 693337, 3/18/09 - Denial of suppression motion affirmed. Cop followed pickup truck late one evening just south of Carrizozo NM and pulls it over because the license plate light is misaligned, creating a glare that prevented cop from reading the plate. Uh-huh. Fishing gear and a tent are in the bed. While waiting for license/registration and warrants checks to come back, cop questioned driver about his travel plans and driver, who is from El Paso, TX, said he decided on the spur of the moment to visit Carrizozo and planned to stay in a hotel. He just wanted to look around for the weekend. Cop then got the all-clear, but kept talking to driver, who said he planned to go fishing, and began asking cop about good places to stay and eat Driver was “just a little bit too nervous.” Cop then talked to passenger, whose story was inconsistent with driver’s on almost every point. Cop eventually got consent to search from both and found drugs. Held - initial stop valid and stop was not unreasonably extended because cop had reasonable suspicion of illegal activity - “Cascading events serially and incrementally added to [cop’s] suspicion of crime underfoot and each event reasonably justified the delay occasioned by his further inquiry.”