Story Archive

Hallelujah

Idaho Trooper Kenneth Peeples thought the rental-car driver he’d pulled over on I-15 was overcompensating, trying to associate himself with local religious people by tuning the radio to Mormon music. Peeples had caught the driver violating an Idaho law that says you mustn’t change lanes till you’ve signaled for five seconds, but after observing the music, a quivering lip, and the smell of an air freshener — and seeing documentation that the car was a rental — he brought a drug dog to examine the vehicle. It alerted, and Peeples found meth in the car. But Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the federal trial court in Idaho, where the drug case was brought, said Peeples didn’t have good enough evidence to start looking for drugs without violating the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. “Hundreds, if not thousands of law-abiding citizens” listen to Mormon music, have air fresheners in their cars, etc. So he threw out the evidence Peeples had unconstitutionally found. (AC/Salt Lake Tribune) ...It’s OK, Mr. Peeples. You really just stopped him to enforce the five-second signaling rule, right?