APPEALS COURT OVERRULES JUDGE IN DRUG CASE DECISION

The Local Lower Court Judge Said Police Overstepped Their Authority In
the Way They Questioned a Woman During a Traffic Stop.

JAMES CITY -- The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that a local
circuit court judge erred last October when he decided to bar
prosecutors from using seized drug paraphernalia as evidence in a case
against a James City woman.

Dorothy Vinetta Briggs, 49, was charged with possession of a
controlled substance after James City police stopped her in May for
driving the wrong way on a road near Magruder Avenue and Pocahontas
Trial.

If the court had upheld Williamsburg-James City Circuit Court Judge
Samuel T. Powell's October decision, the drug charge against Briggs
would have been dropped, her attorney Dwight Dansby said Tuesday. But
the appeals court's decision sends the case back to circuit court to
be prosecuted.

On the day Briggs was stopped, three plainclothes police officers in
an unmarked car asked Briggs for her driver's license and
registration, according to a summary of facts recounted in the court's
decision. Briggs told police her license was suspended.

Police then asked Briggs who had been in her car. She also was asked
if she had anything illegal on her and was told to turn over whatever
might violate the law. Briggs denied having anything illegal on her
person.

According to the summary, the officers then asked Briggs "where her
crack cocaine stem" was. Briggs nodded to a purse on her passenger
seat, reached for it and began searching through it. An officer then
grabbed the purse and began searching through the purse himself. The
officer found a pipe stem with cocaine residue inside her purse.

Dansby said Tuesday that he argued successfully in October that police
violated Briggs' constitutional right against illegal search and
seizure. He also argued that Briggs was detained for a custodial
interrogation, although less than 15 minutes, which required police to
advise her of her Miranda rights to remain silent and seek an
attorneys' advice.

Prosecutors argued that police didn't violate the law by detaining her
for an unreasonable time, nor did they ask her unreasonable questions
or keep her in custody.

In October, Powell ruled that police lacked reasonable suspicion to
conduct an investigative stop and question Briggs the way they did,
the summary states. He granted Dansby's request to suppress the crack
stem that was seized. The appeals court said that on the day Briggs
was arrested she had attracted the attention of police when she gave a
man a ride for one block in an area known for open-air drug dealing.
Police saw the man leaning into the passenger window of her car before
she gave him the ride and began driving in the wrong direction, the
court said.

Tuesday, Dansby argued that Briggs simply gave a ride to a neighbor
and that shouldn't give police reason to have assumed the worst about
her actions. He added that the case reflects a classic difference in
opinion among prosecutors and defense attorneys about where police
powers end and individual rights begin.

"Prosecutors think it's fair for police to ask anything they want
during a traffic stop," said Dansby. "Defense lawyers think if it's a
mere traffic infraction, the person stopped should receive her summons
or ticket and be let go. It shouldn't be open season to find other
things wrong."

Dansby said he'd consult Briggs' about the possibility of appealing
the case further.