Colorado v. Vissarriagas
Annotate this CaseThe State brought an interlocutory appeal seeking the Supreme Court's review of a trial court order that suppressed evidence seized by police following an inventory search after a traffic stop. The trial court ruled that the traffic stop was pretextual and thus invalid. The court reasoned that, pursuant to the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, contraband (heroin and drug paraphernalia) seized from the car during the inventory search had to be suppressed as evidence. Upon review, the Supreme Court held that, irrespective of the officers' pretextual or subjective reason for stopping the vehicle, the officers possessed an independent and objective basis to make this traffic stop (the Defendant ran a red light). Having ruled that the stop was invalid, the trial court did not consider the State's argument that the search of the car was a valid inventory search and that the seizure of contraband from the car was therefore admissible. Hence, the Court reversed the trial court's order of suppression but remanded the case to the trial court with directions to make factual findings and conclusions of law concerning the validity of the inventory search consistent with our holding in "Pineda v. People," (230 P.3d 1181 (Colo. 2010)).
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