SEARCH OF MAN'S PANTS REJECTED

Judges Say Suspect's Consent Didn't Include A Look Inside Trousers

RALEIGH - A man convicted of possessing cocaine after a
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer found drugs by shining a light
down his pants should get a new trial because the search was
unreasonable, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

The ruling in favor of Timothy Stone may serve as a warning to
officers to more exactly describe the scope of their searches before
they physically examine a suspect.

Officers said they spotted and recovered a pill bottle of crack
between Stone's groin and testicles. A court sentenced him in March
2005 from roughly 10 1/2 years to 14 years in prison for drug and
habitual felon convictions.

"We conclude that a reasonable person in defendant's circumstances
would not have understood that he would be subjected to an inspection
of his genitals," Judge Linda McGee wrote in the majority opinion
that says a trial court judge erred by failing to suppress the
evidence, the key element in the conviction.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer R.E. Correa said he spotted a
speeding car with Stone inside leaving a hotel at 3:30 a.m. in
October 2002. Correa pulled up next to the car when it stopped in a
parking lot.

Stone was in the passenger seat, moving from side to side, according
to the opinion. The driver appeared nervous and his hands were
shaking. The officer had received a tip that Stone was a drug dealer,
according to the opinion.

Stone, who was wearing a jacket and a pair of drawstring sweat pants,
stepped out of the car and told Correa he had no drugs or weapons.
Correa asked whether he could search Stone, who agreed.

Correa found more than $552 in cash in Stone's sweat pants pocket and
asked again whether Stone had any drugs. Stone again said no but
allowed the search to continue.

With another officer now at the scene, Correa pulled the pants away
from Stone's body and aimed his flashlight at his groin area.

Stone objected, but the two officers already had viewed the white cap
of what appeared to be a pill bottle along his groin, the opinion
said. The officers handcuffed Stone before Correa retrieved the
bottle, which contained 26 grams of crack.

In court, Stone sought to have the evidence suppressed.

The officer "asked for the consent to search in the vaguest way
possible," said Jarvis Edgerton IV, a Raleigh attorney representing
Stone. "No reasonable person thinks that's what they're consenting to."

Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Albert Diaz ruled that given the
circumstances, the time of night and cash found on Stone, there was
sufficient reason to suspect that Stone was hiding contraband, even
under his clothes.

Stone appealed after his conviction, arguing the search exceed the
scope of his consent. Correa didn't obtain specific approval to
inspect his genitals, McGee ruled in saying a reasonable person would
not have expected such an examination.

Although Correa had arrested drug suspects before with drugs in their
groin area, he testified at the suppression hearing that he "was not
really expecting to find anything, honestly," according to the opinion.

Judge Rick Elmore joined McGee in the opinion.

The state can appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. The state
Attorney General's Office has not decided yet what it will do,
spokeswoman Noelle Talley said.