APPEALS COURT RULES POLICE CAN LIE TO SUSPECTS

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the misleading statements were allowable as long as an officer has sufficient evidence to support the underlying investigation

By Mark Morey | Yakima Herald-Republic | April 1, 2016

A police officer may lie to a suspect regarding the reason for a traffic stop, even when no traffic violation was committed, if it's part of an unrelated criminal investigation, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling issued Thursday.

The case, which originated in federal court in Montana, involved two men accused of transporting methamphetamine from the Yakima Valley to Minnesota.

Hector Magallon-Lopez argued that his right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure was violated when an officer told him he'd been stopped for changing lanes without signaling. He asked that evidence be suppressed because of the supposed violation.

A federal district judge in Montana had rejected his argument, prompting the appeal.

The appeals court ruled that the misleading statements were allowable as long as an officer has sufficient evidence to support the underlying investigation.

In this case, a Drug Enforcement Administration task force had developed information through wire-tapped conversations about a drug conspiracy.

Officers believed that Magallon-Lopez and his co-defendant would be traveling through Bozeman, Mont., in a certain car early one morning in September 2012.

When a car matching the description, and registered to Magallon-Lopez in Toppenish, passed through Bozeman on Interstate 90 near the appointed time, an officer pulled the car over. The officer told Magallon-Lopez he'd failed to signal while changing lanes. However, court records indicate the officer did not actually observe a traffic violation.

Investigators ultimately detained the pair and discovered two pounds of methamphetamine in the car.

Magallon-Lopez was sentenced in November 2014 to 10 years in federal prison after jurors found him guilty of drug-dealing charges. His co-defendant was sentenced to more than 12 years.

Both are expected to be deported upon completion of their sentences.

EFITOR’S NOTE: So what else is new? We’ve been lying to suspects, just like they’ve been lying to us, during interviews and interrogations as far back as I can remember. It’s part of the cops-and-robbers game of who can trip up the other first. The only surprise here is that the ruling came from the country’s most liberal appeals court.