VoteKansas.org

NEW YORK (AP) -- The investigation into the disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz has stretched through decades and countries, from basements to rooftops and seemingly everywhere in between....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- He was described as the "evil genius" of the Nixon administration, and spent the better part of a year in prison for a Watergate-related conviction. His proclamations following his release that he was a new man, redeemed by his religious faith, were met with more than skepticism by those angered at the abuses he had perpetrated as one of Nixon's hatchet men....

Chuck Colson, 80, the onetime "hatchet man" to President Nixon who devoted his post-political career to Christian causes and an international ministry to prisoners, died Saturday at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Complications from bleeding on the brain are believed to have contributed to his final illness.

The burly ex-Marine captain and ...

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside.

Defense attorneys for other high-profile clients who awaited trial on bail had advice for how to ...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Fifteen years ago, California voters were asked: Should colleges consider a student's race when they decide who gets in and who doesn't?...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Fifteen years ago, California voters were asked: Should colleges consider a student's race when they decide who gets in and who doesn't?...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Fifteen years ago, California voters were asked: Should colleges consider a student's race when they decide who gets in and who doesn't?...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Fifteen years ago, California voters were asked: Should colleges consider a student's race when they decide who gets in and who doesn't?...

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Fifteen years ago, California voters were asked: Should colleges consider a student's race when they decide who gets in and who doesn't?...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The International Monetary Fund says financially-strapped European countries must put in place bold changes to resolve a prolonged debt crisis....

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside....

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside....

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside....

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside....

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Trayvon Martin was shot through the heart at close range. George Zimmerman had a broken nose, bruises and bloody cuts on the back of his head....

MIAMI (AP) -- George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, surrendered to police Sunday and was booked into jail after having his bail revoked two days earlier....

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside....

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) -- George Zimmerman is getting out of jail. Now his defense team has to worry about keeping the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of gunning down Trayvon Martin safe on the outside....

Any illegality in the initial traffic detention was attenuated by defendant's probation search condition. Although the patdown search and discovery of the gun occurred shortly after the traffic detention, they did not occur until after the officer had recognized defendant as a person subject to a search condition. The search condition supplied legal authorization to search that was completely independent of the circumstances leading to the traffic stop. Nor was there any flagrancy or purposefulness to the alleged unlawful conduct by the officer. While the trial court found that the stop was made without reasonable suspicion, it specifically found the officer did not act in an arbitrary, capricious, or harassing manner. The officer was aware of defendant's probation condition before the search, and the existence of that probation condition dissipated any taint that might flow from the detention. People v. Durant, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 442 (1st Dist. April 19, 2012).

Defendant was a corrections officer, and that helps show he voluntarily consented. United States v. Francis, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54244 (W.D. Ark. March 29, 2012).

The stop should have ended when the officer gave a warning ticket, and he was made to stand in the rain while the office continued on his investigative mission. United States v. Culp, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55494 (W.D. Mo. April 20, 2012)*:

Here, the unfolding of the circumstances makes the detention much more akin to a prolonged investigatory expedition with the singular mission of searching Defendant's vehicle than a permissible course of action reasonably directed toward the proper ends of the stop. The parties agree that the purpose of the traffic stop was concluded, at the latest, once Gillespie made the decision to only give Defendant a warning and not issue him a ticket, and so informed Defendant, returning his belongings, and asked Defendant if he had any questions. It was only after that point, that Gillespie embarked on an extensive course of investigation and questions aimed at conducting a search. ...

Although Gillespie testified that he had already decided not to issue Defendant a ticket for "following too closely" and only give him a warning, he nonetheless returned to the driver's side of Defendant's vehicle, directed Defendant to get out of the car and had him move to the back of the vehicle, where he was further detained while Gillespie pursued a mission entirely separate from the underlying traffic violation. It is clear from the video recording that Defendant remained there, standing in the rain, at Gillespie's behest, and would not have thought he was free to leave. Certainly, had Defendant believed that this was a mere consensual encounter at this point, he would not have remained in the pouring rain, in his shirt sleeves, while Gillespie ambled on with questions.

As the Sixth Circuit noted in Everett, "the touchstone of any Fourth Amendment analysis is reasonableness." 601 F.3d at 494. The Court "must conduct a fact-bound, context-dependent inquiry in each case." Id. Having fully considered the circumstances as they unfolded during the stop, as viewed on the video recordings, in conjunction with Gillespie's testimony, the Court finds no acceptable purpose for Gillespie's extended detention and prolonged questioning of Defendant, pat-down, and persistent requests to search the vehicle, all after the purpose of the traffic stop had undisputedly ended.