Temporary tag in rear window gets conviction tossed

Marilyn Odendahl for www.theindianalawyer.com

A Hendricks County Sheriff’s deputy’s ignorance of where a temporary license plate can be displayed on a car led the Indiana Court of Appeals to overturn a drunken-driving conviction.

Deputy Nathan Hibschman pulled over a vehicle because it did not have a license plate on its bumper. However, after he made the traffic stop, he noticed a temporary tag taped to the car’s rear window but he mistakenly believed state statute required the tag to be placed on the bumper.

Approaching the driver, Jeremy Darringer, the deputy noticed a strong smell of alcohol and subsequently administered a sobriety test. Darringer failed that test.

Before his trial, Darringer filed a motion to suppress the evidence, arguing the deputy had no reason to make the initial stop. However, Hendricks Superior Judge Stephenie LeMay-Luken denied the motion on the grounds that the stop was appropriate because the temporary tag was not clearly visible even though it was in the proper place.

Darringer was convicted of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class A misdemeanor.

On appeal, Darringer renewed his arguments that the state failed to prove the stop was based upon a reasonable suspicion that he committed a traffic violation or that the deputy made an objectively reasonable mistake justifying the stop.

The state countered the stop was proper because the plate was not clearly visible. The Court of Appeals found the record revealed the deputy did not even look anywhere else on the vehicle except the bumper.

Judge Elaine Brown wrote, “While Deputy Hibschman testified that he did not see a plate on the vehicle, he also repeatedly stated that he did not look in the rear window and did not look anywhere else other than the bumper. Accordingly, we cannot say that the facts known to Deputy Hibschman would have otherwise provided a basis for the stop based upon the idea that the interim plate in the rear window was not clearly visible, where Deputy Hibschman specifically testified that he did not look in the rear window.”

The Court of Appeals reversed Darringer’s conviction in Jeremy Darringer v. State of Indiana, 32A01-1503-CR-86.

Judge Patricia Riley concurred in result without opinion.