Fruit of the Poison Tree

[I_Got_Banned]

The problem is that NJ's computer system has a peculiarity in which people without NJ CDL's who have received parking tickets in NJ appear (on the officer's computer) to have expired NJ DL's.

Question is, whether those people who have been tagged bt the system as a result of this "peculiarity" should be behind the wheel driving when in fact they have no valid license to begin with!!!!

 

[goddessoflubboc]

While your theory *may* hold some weight, as far as your case goes it is probably a non-starter.

The state's side will be inevitable discovery, that if you'd not been stopped for the license issue another officer (or even the same one) would have spotted your invalid sticker.

Have you reconciled the NJ registration NY license issue yet? Most jurisdictions give a very limited time (<30 days) to do so.

 

[HappyWanderer]

That would not be the description of what inevitable discovery is. This is not an inevitable discovery issue.

 

[believeinthesys]

I have a valid drivers license

Hi. To recap; I have a valid NY drivers license. The stop was for an "expired NJ DL". I never had an NJ DL. This is amistake in the NJ DMV system which I have partially resolved and I will resolve the NY/NJ issue separatley.

NJ "assigns" a number to "you" in the system if you receive a parking ticket in NJ on a car registered to you. To the officer, on his/her computer - this "number" appears to be a DL number.

I am trying to better understand the legality of the stop. The officer acted in good faith and had reason to pull me over - but the reason, an expired NJ lisence, is the result of a system-wide glitch per above.

I should have never been pulled over in the first place. When i was pulled over, the officer found/noticed/discovered my expired inspection sticker - for which i was cited.

Someone used the term "inevitable discovery". This sounds like a term of art with which I am not familiar, but in layman's terms, I do not believe my expired inspection would have been discovered without this particular stop happening.

My larger concern is that the stop was not justified, even with the opfficer acting reasonably. If it was, then the implications are troublesome as the State entity could intentionally provide officers with misinfomation to justify otherwise invalid stops.

I'm trying to understand what logic thread/president/term of art I need to research in order to effectivley make my case. All help is appreciated. And sorry for my atrocious spelling.

 

[Joshuaace2]

While your theory *may* hold some weight, as far as your case goes it is probably a non-starter.

I agree with this. OP does raise a valid point. Will it help him in this case? I doubt it.

The state's side will be inevitable discovery, that if you'd not been stopped for the license issue another officer (or even the same one) would have spotted your invalid sticker.

Can't agree with this. This would definitely not fit the requirements of inevitable discovery.

The state will argue the actions of the officer were reasonable based on the information he had at the time. Were they? Maybe, maybe not.
Lubboc does raise a valid question in an earlier post, How would the officer know who was driving until "after" he made the stop?

 

[dave33]

I think to be reasonable, you should understand that however unfair and against a persons private rights, this is simply how the criminal justice system works. Reasons for stops are made up everyday. If a stop is made and is found to be unjustified but another infraction is discovered than that will usually be the reason for the stop. goodluck.

 

[goddessoflubboc]

The inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary allows that even if the original course of action (as OP hopes to show) the court will allow anything garnered from that action which could even have hypothetically come to attention without that initial action.

Some courts don't even require that a governmental agency be the one to discover it.

However, OP would probably be best served by showing proof he updated his sticker to meet requirements and hope for a dismissal. At most he'll have to pay a small fine.

 

[Joshuaace2]

The inevitable discovery exception to the exclusionary allows that even if the original course of action (as OP hopes to show) the court will allow anything garnered from that action which could even have hypothetically come to attention without that initial action.

Some courts don't even require that a governmental agency be the one to discover it.

This is off topic, but you have clearly missed the boat on inevitable discovery.
ID comes into play only AFTER evidence has been gained unlawfully, and subsequently suppressed. The burden is then on the state to PROVE the evidence would have inevitably been discovered.

For discovery to be inevitable the state must show historical facts, capable of verification or impeachment, that they would have discovered the evidence absent any Government illegality. Merely suggesting a future patrolman would have spotted the invalid sticker will not meet the burden of proof required. This is not an exception to the exclusionary rule that should be applied casually, lest it consume the exclusionary rule entirely.

Goddess, please do a little more research on ID. The topic has been covered on this forum before.

 

[dave33]

Criminal rules and procedures have no valid points here. There have been no criminal charges filed. O.p. has gotten a valid sticker and that is about all he can do. Although I can be wrong, but in my state traffic court and criminal court are night and day. goodluck.

 

[HighwayMan]

If the officer acted in good faith then there is no issue.

If he came to realize that the license was a non-issue and cut you loose right away then there is nothing wrong here. While he had you stopped he saw your inspection was expired though. He then had the right to cite you for that and to keep you detained as long as it was necessary to do so.

Same thing happens with licenses in NY, but there is no expiration listed on the license record. If you think this is a deliberate act on the part of NJ just to get police officers to stop motorists for no reason then I think you are stretching things a bit.

 

[Alexcny]

For what its worth,

I am from NY and have the same inspection sticker. Its a white sticker with 4 numbers 2 for the month and 2 for the year.

I had a car where the registration was up to date but the sticker was expired. I didn't realize the sticker was old for about a month. When I found out I had some issues getting the new sticker and it was nearly two months before I actually got this.

During these 3 months I drove a lot! I also went through a police check point on two occassions. My car is very low to the ground. I was never once stopped because the inspection sticker was expired.

Since then I've tried to see if I can see the numbers of other cars on their stickers. It is almost impossible to do.