JOSEPH NORMAN, JR. v. STATE OF MARYLAND
Court of Appeals, Watts, March 27, 2017,
Car Stop- Odor of Marijuana- Without more, an odor of marijuana coming from a vehicle does not allow police to frisk the occupants

Plurality
(Main opinion- Watts with Hotten)
(Join in judgment only- Greene)
(Concur- Adkins with Barbera- not reasonable to believe passenger involved in drug dealing where car smells of mj)
(Dissent- Getty with McDonald – probable cause for drugs should be RAS to frisk)

If someone doesn’t teach Judge Watts’ law-clerk case synthesis, I’m going to lose my mind. Pages 13-36 could just be straight deleted and it would have no impact on the opinion. She’s summarizing dozens of pages with no adoption or rejection, to say nothing of throwing in her dissent in Sellman for no reason. Judge Adkins’ opinion also had two votes, so why couldn’t they just make that the plurality opinion?Come on, Judge Greene! Have mercy!

Facts
On March 22, 2015, An MSP trooper initiated a traffic stop of a 1996 Nissan with an inoperable right taillight in Princess Anne.
In addition to the driver, there was a passenger in the vehicle’s front passenger seat, and another passenger was in the backseat. The Trooper called for backup and within a few minutes, two more troopers arrived.
As the trooper approached the car, he detected a strong odor of fresh marijuana emanating from the vehicle’s passenger compartment.
The trooper told the vehicle’s three occupants to exit the vehicle so that he could search it for marijuana. The trooper testified that, before searching the vehicle, for his safety, he frisked the vehicle’s occupants to look for weapons.
When the trooper frisked the front passenger, he felt what seemed like “large quantities” of plastic- or cellophane-covered, individually packaged bags of drugs in the front passenger’s pants pocket.
The trooper testified that he moved the passenger’s pants pockets to make sure there was not a weapon. He “shook” the pants pocket, and a bag of marijuana fell onto the ground.
The passenger challenged the search in court, but lost the suppression motion and was convicted. On appeal, he argued that the trooper illegally searched him by conducting a frisk without reasonable suspicion he was armed.
Law from the Case
Held: Because the Trooper had no suspicion other than the odor of marijuana, it was illegal to conduct a frisk.
Frisk- To conduct a frisk, an officer must both have reasonable suspicion to conduct a stop and have reasonable suspicion that the individual is armed and dangerous.
Practice Note: Before conducting a car stop, pay careful attention to the position and movement within the target vehicle. What changes when… you pull behind the vehicle? When you activate your lights/siren? When the car pulls over? When you approach? These observations may give you the reasonable-suspicion that you need to act.