NC Supreme Court Evaluates Traffic Stop for Fishtailing in Snow

State v. Johnson, __ N.C. __ (August 18, 2017) opens like a novel: Defendant was stopped at a red light on a snowy evening. When the light turned green, defendant’s truck abruptly accelerated, turned sharply left, and fishtailed, all in front of a police officer in his patrol car. The officer pulled defendant over for driving at an unsafe speed given the road conditions. On second thought, maybe this reads more like a bar exam question (or a Dan Fogelberg song). What say you, barristers?  Was the stop lawful? The North Carolina Supreme Court held that the stop was lawful as these facts provided the officer with reasonable suspicion to believe the defendant was driving at an unsafe speed given the weather and road conditions. If you thought the stop was unlawful, don’t feel badly.  A unanimous panel of court of appeals judges did too. See State v. Johnson, ___ N.C. App. ___, 784 S.E.2d 633 (2016), reversed, __ N.C. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (2017) (discussed in this earlier post). Procedural history. The police officer who pulled over the defendant in Johnson gathered evidence during the course of the stop that caused him to believe Johnson was driving while impaired – the offense for which Johnson ultimately was arrested and charged. Johnson filed a motion in district court to suppress the evidence resulting from the stop on the basis that the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to believe he had committed a traffic offense. The district court judge preliminarily indicated his intent [...]