ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man who was found guilty of possessing a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia after a contentious traffic stop and vehicle search.
Chad Thomas argued that law enforcement overstepped its bounds during the incident, but the court determined that the officer involved had reasonable suspicion to extend the stop, according to the Nov. 5 Supreme Court of Missouri opinion, authored by Judge Mary R. Russell.
The case began in the early morning hours of a winter day when a police officer pulled over Thomas for a broken headlight.
Upon approaching the passenger side of the vehicle, the officer requested Thomas to roll down his front window, but Thomas only lowered it a few inches.
The officer found this behavior suspicious, as it was atypical for drivers to partially lower their windows during stops.
When asked for his driver’s license, Thomas was unable to produce it, repeatedly searching through his wallet without success.
The officer then asked Thomas to exit the vehicle and performed a pat-down, during which he felt an unusual bulge.
Thomas, appearing evasive, suggested it might be a "sharp"—a term often used to describe hypodermic needles. As the exchange continued, Thomas exhibited other signs of nervousness, including rapid speech and sweating in the cold.
During the stop, Thomas attempted to retrieve his license from the center console but moved in a manner that obscured the officer’s view.
This prompted the officer to remove Thomas from the vehicle for safety reasons.
After a series of inconsistent statements by Thomas and behavior that further aroused suspicion, the officer called for a canine unit to conduct a search.
The canine quickly alerted to Thomas’s vehicle, leading to a search that revealed a glass smoking pipe, a drip bottle containing a clear substance and a hypodermic needle with methamphetamine.
Thomas moved to suppress this evidence, claiming that the extended traffic stop and search violated his constitutional rights. The circuit court, however, ruled that Thomas’s conduct and the officer’s observations justified the prolonged detention and search.
At trial, the circuit court allowed the evidence despite Thomas’s standing objection.
He was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, receiving a 10-year sentence as a prior offender. Thomas appealed, contending that the officer lacked reasonable grounds to extend the traffic stop and that the search violated the Fourth Amendment.
The Missouri Supreme Court reviewed the case, focusing on whether the officer’s actions were lawful.
It concluded that the officer’s observations—Thomas’s unusual behavior, evasiveness, and physical cues—constituted reasonable suspicion to justify the detention and call for a canine unit.
The court ruled that the stop, which lasted under 30 minutes from initiation to the canine alert, did not violate Thomas’s constitutional rights.
In affirming the lower court's decision, the Missouri Supreme Court emphasized that the totality of circumstances supported the officer's suspicion of criminal activity, making the subsequent search and seizure lawful.
The Attorney General's Office did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
Missouri Supreme Court case number: SC100469