EASTON POLICE HAD RIGHT TO MAKE APRIL TRAFFIC STOP, JUDGE RULES

Evidence Can Be Used Against Two Facing Weapons Charges.

Evidence against two men arrested on weapons charges after a traffic stop
in Easton can be used by the prosecution, a Northampton County judge has ruled.

Keven Ymir Harris, 30, of Plainfield, N.J., and Towan Rodney Bowling, 32,
of the 1200 block of Butler Street in Easton had questioned the traffic
stop April 18 at St. John and Orchard streets.

Judge Stephen G. Baratta on Thursday ruled that the traffic stop was
lawful. In addition, the judge ruled that police had a right to remove
Harris and Bowling from the car.

Harris faces charges of carrying a firearm without a license, violating a
prohibition against former convicts owning a firearm, corruption of minors,
loitering and prowling, and a summary traffic offense. Bowling is charged
with carrying a firearm without a license, resisting arrest, corruption of
minors, and loitering and prowling.

Ricky Alton Sloan and Joseph Earl Harris, both of Plainfield, were charged
with corruption of minors, and loitering and prowling. A 16- year-old boy
in the car was not charged.

In his order, Baratta says officer Salvatore A. Crisafulli saw a car making
numerous stops in the Delaware Terrace area of the city's South Side about
2:30 a.m. Crisafulli stopped the car after about 20 minutes, after Harris,
the driver, made a turn without using a turn signal.

Crisafulli said he smelled marijuana coming from the car. Officer
Christopher Miller saw, by shining his flashlight into the car, that
Bowling had a knife clipped to his pocket. Police said they got Bowling out
of the car and found that he also had a handgun. Harris was ordered out of
the car but refused. He was removed, and police said they found a handgun
on him.

No marijuana or other drugs were found in the car or on the passengers.

The men wanted evidence suppressed because, they said, police had no reason
to stop the car, nor to remove them from it. Baratta ruled that the stop
was proper, because Crisafulli "articulated reasonable grounds to believe
that the defendants, given the high-crime area, were loitering and prowling
at night" and because he reasonably suspected several traffic violations.

Asking Bowling and Harris to get out of the car was also proper, the judge
ruled, because police are allowed to do so during a traffic stop and in the
"officer's interest in safety."

In addition, Baratta said, the car had tinted windows and police were
"unable to clearly view activity within the vehicle." The numerous stops
and starts, he said, made for suspicious activity.