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Appeals court overturns marijuana conviction in traffic stop

By: Eric Heisig//August 14, 2013//

Appeals court overturns marijuana conviction in traffic stop

By: Eric Heisig//August 14, 2013//

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A Green Bay man’s marijuana conviction was overturned after the Court of Appeals said a police officer unlawfully searched the man’s car and found evidence during a traffic stop that was already completed.

According to the Court of Appeals’ six-page decision released Wednesday, Mequon Police Officer John Hoell initiated the search in December 2010 after he gave Kenneth House a warning for driving with a suspended registration.

The traffic stop was effectively over, according to the decision, but Hoell had his police dog search House’s car. The officer, who had run House’s name in a computer and found that House was on probation for possession of a controlled substance, then found a bag of marijuana in House’s trunk.

The higher court overturned House’s conviction of second-offense felony possession of THC because the search was not initiated as part of the original traffic stop. Instead, it began after the traffic stop was over, the ruling reads, and House was unlawfully detained “after the purpose of the traffic stop had concluded.”

House “would not have felt free to leave” because of the search, according to the decision.

“Therefore, Hoell’s continued detention of House to conduct the dog sniff was not reasonably related in scope to the circumstances justifying the stop,” the opinion reads.

The appeals court remanded the matter back to in Ozaukee County.

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