A uncorroborated anonymous tip was insufficient to justify a search of appellants car. The tip was that the driver of a gray Taurus with a partially described license plate in a specific parking lot was carrying a gun and a kilo of cocaine. Defendant, the registered owner of the car, lived at a certain address. The officers discovered a four year old outstanding warrant for a person (not the registered owner) listed as living at that address. The subsequent “felony extraction” stop of the car made after defendant entered it and drove away was not justified, because the anonymous tip was uncorroborated by any observations or information available to the deputies. The tip did not predict behavior, and the fact that the car was at present at the specified location did not corroborate the criminal element of the tip.
Case Summaries