Quote Originally Posted by bongomania
l33t h4x0r is very correct and Myth1184 is After my ID, registration, and insurance all cleared, hillin wasn't allowed to ask me if he could search my vehicle. the US Supreme Court has many times said that once everything clears I could either be given a warning or a citation, unless there is probable cause. there was no probable cause but hillin asked anyway. I denied his request. So hillin continued to break the law and he asked to search my vehicle again. I said, "No" again.
Actually you're slightly off-base here. He is allowed at any time to ask if you will consent to a search of your vehicle - there is absolutely nothing about that which violates your rights. However, you DO have the right to refuse at which point he must provide at the very least a "reasonable articulable suspicion" for minimally intrusive inspections for weapons (see Terry v. Ohio), or probable cause for a full out search/arrest for any form of illegal contraband (Wong Sun is one of the big cases you might look at or that).

On the K-9 issue, it would not have been illegal for the dog to have sniffed your car while he was running the license checks, etc... if he had the dog with him. Where the officer went astray was when he denied your request to leave after he had no reasonable articulable suspicion to hold you further. At that point the stop had turned into a detention where a "reasonable person would not have felt free to leave" and very well might have crossed the boundary into an arrest.

All this being said, i submit that you got lucky. The DA could have potentially won on an opposition to the suppression motion, arguing that your evident "nervousness" and maybe even a furtive gesture/motion thrown in may have provided a reasonable articulable suspicion in light of the officer's training and experience in dealing with narcotics. Not saying that this would be the right thing, but I've seen it done in my time working with the US Attorney's Office.

Good work handling your case though, and best of luck.