Bryant v. State
| Docket Number | 23A-CR-18 |
| Decision Date | 30 August 2023 |
| Parties | Rashad Shareef Bryant, Appellant-Defendant, v. State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff |
| Court | Indiana Appellate Court |
Pursuant to Ind. Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision is not binding precedent for any court and may be cited only for persuasive value or to establish res judicata, collateral estoppel, or law of the case.
Interlocutory Appeal from the Hendricks Superior Court The Honorable Stephenie LeMay-Luken, Judge Trial Court Cause No 32D05-2201-F2-1
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT
Susan D. Rayl Morgan Brading Harshman | Ponist Smith & Rayl Indianapolis, Indiana
ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE
Theodore E. Rokita Indiana Attorney General
Sierra A. Murray Deputy Attorney General Indianapolis, Indiana
[¶1] Rashad Shareef Bryant was arrested after a traffic stop and charged with multiple drug- and firearm-related offenses. He filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized during the stop as well as any testimony about that evidence, arguing that the stop was unreasonably prolonged so that a police dog could sniff his vehicle for contraband. After a hearing, the trial court denied Bryant's motion. On appeal, Bryant argues that the ruling is erroneous. We disagree and therefore affirm.
[¶2] At 2:22 a.m. on January 29, 2022, Brownsburg Police Department Officer Elsiana Crosby activated the emergency lights on her patrol car and stopped Bryant's SUV after he turned from Connector Road onto North Ronald Reagan Parkway. During a July 2022 deposition that was taken in anticipation of the October 2022 suppression hearing,[1] Officer Crosby testified that she stopped Bryant because he made Ex. Vol. 3 at 5. Footage from Officer Crosby's bodycam video shows that she told Bryant that she pulled him over for not using his turn signal when he "came off Connector Road." State's Ex. 3 at 00:07. Bryant apologized, and the officer said that it was "no big deal[.]" Id. at 00:08.
[¶3] Officer Crosby asked Bryant for his driver's license and vehicle registration, which he gave to her, and asked where he was going. Bryant replied that he was "picking [his] friend up from this club." Id. at 00:12. The officer asked Bryant what kind of club it was and where it was. Bryant said that he "didn't even know the name" of the club and that he was going to look at his friend's directions to the club when he got to a gas station. Id. at 00:46. Officer Crosby asked Bryant why he was going to a gas station. Bryant stated that he "just need[ed] to go to the gas station" and that he did not do anything wrong, and he asked her to write him "a ticket or whatever you're gonna do." Id. at 01:07. Officer Crosby told Bryant that she was "not gonna write a ticket[.]" Id. at 01:09.[2] Bryant said, Id. at 01:12. Officer Crosby stated that she was "doing OWI interdiction" and had asked him about the gas station because she noticed that he had gas in his vehicle. Id. at 01:13. Bryant said, "I'm going to set up the directions when I get over [there]." Id. at 01:21. Officer Crosby told Bryant to "hang tight" and walked toward her car with his license and registration. Id. at 01:22. En route, she remarked, "I don't know, might not be so good." Id. at 01:30.
[¶4] Officer Crosby reentered her car, turned on the dome light, and exclaimed, "I wish I could smell[,]" apparently referring to her inability to detect the odor of an alcoholic beverage. Id. at 01:39.[3] She entered information from Bryant's registration into her laptop computer and radioed Canine Officer Bradley Carr to ask if he was "available to swing by [her] stop[.]" Id. at 02:48. Officer Carr responded affirmatively. Officer Crosby scrolled through information on her computer screen, which included a photo of a person who resembled Bryant. Id. at 04:16. She then muttered, "Condition," and scanned the barcode on the back of Bryant's license with a handheld scanner. Id. at 04:35-04:51. Officer Crosby interacted with her computer and pulled up several different screens, one of which showed a photo of a person who resembled Bryant Id. at 06:02.
[¶5] Officer Crosby then conducted Google searches on her phone. Id. at 06:11. Slightly over a minute later, she put down her phone and turned off the dome light. Id. at 07:28. Shortly after that, she turned the dome light back on and apparently muted her bodycam audio. Id. at 08:49. Officer Carr approached Officer Crosby's vehicle, and she rotated her laptop screen to face the front passenger window. Id. at 09:19. She unmuted her bodycam audio, apparently mid-conversation, and stated, "Been a while, but worth looking at, I think." Id. at 09:24. Officer Carr asked, Id. at 09:26. Officer Crosby replied, "Yeah, I was gonna see if you would go up there and smell him." Id. at 09:29. Officer Carr said, "OK, I'll ask him if he has his insurance," and started walking around the front of Officer Crosby's car toward Bryant's vehicle. Id. at 09:31. Officer Crosby called out, "And hey, you can ask him why his license are [sic] conditional, and then you can pull him out and we'll put him in the front seat of my car." Id. at 09:40.
[¶6] At that point, Officer Carr's bodycam also began recording. He approached Bryant, who was still sitting in his vehicle, and asked, "Hey, why does your license show conditional status?" State's Ex. 4 at 00:09. Bryant replied, Id. at 00:19. Officer Carr replied, Id. at 00:20. Bryant said, "No, sir." Id. at 00:21. Officer Carr asked, "Do you have a problem with giving consent to search the vehicle?" Id. at 00:24. Bryant replied, Id. at 00:28. The officer asked, "Well, do me a favor, will you just hop out for me?" Id. at 00:29. Bryant replied, "No, sir, for what?" Id. at 00:30. Officer Carr said, "Because I'm gonna run my dog around your car, and you can't stay in it." Id. at 00:32. Bryant said, "No, no." Id. at 00:33. The officer said, "Yeah, yeah, you need to step out of the car." Id. at 00:34. Bryant again asked, "For what?" Id. at 00:35. Officer Carr replied, Id. at 00:43. Bryant insisted that he had not done anything wrong, that he did not want his vehicle searched, and that "it was a turn signal, that's all that's been going on." Id. at 00:47.
[¶7] Bryant refused to get out of his vehicle, and a back-and-forth ensued between him and Officer Carr, who was soon joined by Officer Crosby. Officer Crosby asked Officer Carr if he had smelled any alcohol, and he replied, "I didn't smell anything." Id. at 03:02. Officer Crosby asked Bryant why his license was conditional and what those conditions were, and he replied that he could drive for work and was a Lyft driver. Id. at 04:43. Officer Crosby said, "I thought you were picking your buddy up." Id. at 04:45. Bryant replied, "Yes, I am." Id. at 04:47. The officer said, "Oh, on Lyft, OK, so you have the app?" Id. at 04:48. Bryant said that he did. The officer asked if she could see the app, and Bryant replied, "I don't have to do all that." Id. at 04:57. Officer Crosby reminded Bryant that his license was "conditional," told him to "hang tight," id. at 05:01, and returned to her car to call her shift supervisor, Sergeant Matt Wing.
[¶8] Bryant remained in his vehicle with the window rolled up and made several phone calls. He rolled down his window for a brief interchange with Officer Carr, and then Sergeant Wing arrived and asked him to exit the vehicle to avoid any use of force or a resisting charge. Negotiations proved fruitless, and the sergeant asked Officer Carr to get his dog. Id. at 12:44. Ultimately, after giving several warnings and asking Bryant to unlock his door, Officer Crosby shattered Bryant's window. Id. at 20:52. Bryant was removed from the vehicle and handcuffed. Shortly thereafter, Officer Carr's dog alerted to the presence of a controlled substance at the front "passenger side door seam[.]" Tr. Vol. 2 at 17.
Officer Heather Foote searched behind the vehicle's glove box and found a bag containing three baggies of cocaine, a scale, a Glock handgun with a loaded magazine, and a loaded Glock extended thirty-round magazine. Police patted down Bryant near Officer Crosby's car, and an additional baggie of cocaine was found in that area.
[¶9] The State charged Bryant with level 2 felony dealing in cocaine, level 3 felony possession of cocaine, level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon class A misdemeanor carrying a handgun without a license, class A misdemeanor resisting law enforcement, and class C misdemeanor violation of driving conditions. The State also alleged that Bryant was a habitual offender. Bryant filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized during the traffic stop and any testimony regarding that evidence, arguing that the traffic stop was unreasonably prolonged to allow the dog to sniff his vehicle. At the hearing on the motion, Sergeant Wing and Officers Carr and Foote testified. Officer Crosby's deposition was admitted into evidence, as were the police incident report and DVDs of the officers'...
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