By: Derek Hawkins//July 20, 2015//
Criminal
Supreme Court of Wisconsin
Reasonable Suspicion – Mistake of Law
2013AP1581-CR State of Wisconsin v. Richard E. Houghton, Jr.
Where police officer’s mistake of law ultimately held as a valid basis for finding reasonable suspicion,
“Because searches and seizures can be based on mistakes of fact, see Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 183-86 (1990); State v. Reierson, No. 2010AP596-CR, unpublished slip op., ¶1 (Wis. Ct. App. Apr. 28, 2011), we confront the question of whether the lack of a front license plate, without more, may give rise to reasonable suspicion to conduct a traffic stop. To answer this question in the affirmative, we would have to hold that it is reasonable for a police officer in Wisconsin to believe that, if a vehicle is operating on a Wisconsin road, it must have been issued two license plates. Such a belief would usually be unreasonable. Wisconsin borders four other states, and residents from those and many other states pass through Wisconsin on a regular basis. That most vehicles on Wisconsin roads might be registered in Wisconsin and most vehicles registered in Wisconsin might be issued two plates is not enough to conclude that a stop of a vehicle solely because it lacks a front license plate passes constitutional muster.”
Reversed
DAVID T. PROSSER, J
Dissenting: ABRAHAMSON, BRADLEY, J.J., dissent. (Opinion Filed.)