Supreme Court Overturns Panasuk Decision
The Montana Supreme Court has overturned the 2022 verdict of John David Panasuk, who the Roosevelt County jury found guilty of possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.
In June 2022, District Judge David J. Cybulski sentenced Panasuk to a three-year sentence in the state prison with no fine.
Justice Laurie McKinnon delivered the opinion for the Montana Supreme Court. The majority of the justices felt that the District Court erred when it found law enforcement had sufficient particularized suspicion to expand the scope of a traffic stop to a drug investigation.
Panasuk was pulled over by officer Jonah Riediger and Lt. Frank Martell, Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice officers, for towing a trailer without trailer plates on May 19, 2021. McKinnon wrote that when Riediger was asked why he turned a routine traffic stop into a drug investigation, he said that he had information that Panasuk was dealing narcotics on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. But when asked if he observed any evidence of illegal drug activity during the stop, Riediger responded “not at the time I conducted my investigation.” The officer also admitted that his suspicion was based entirely on Panasuk’s prior history and a conversation he had two weeks earlier.
McKinnon writes, “Police must act with reasonable diligence to quickly confirm or dispel the particularized suspicion of criminal activity that justified the initial stop, and any subsequent expansion in duration or scope must be based on new or additional particularized suspicion developed within the lawful scope or duration of the initial stop and before it should have reasonably been completed.” She continued, “Thus, on a valid traffic stop, the tolerable duration of police inquiry is limited to the time necessary to address the traffic violation and any related safety concerns and authority for the seizure ends when tasks related to the traffic infraction reasonably should have been completed.”
Police also have reasonable latitude to reach, follow up on and confirm or dispel initial suspicions of criminal activity.
McKinnon notes, “An officer conducting a traffic stop may request a driver’s license and vehicle registration, run a computer check and issue a citation. However, when the driver has produced a valid driver’s license and proof that he may operate the car, he must be allowed to proceed on his way, without being subject to further delay by additional police questioning.”
The majority of the justices felt that the incident went beyond what was reasonably necessary to resolve the initial traffic stop. “Riediger expanded the scope of the detention into a drug investigation without any particularized suspicion that Panasuk was currently involved in illegal drug activity.”
McKinnon was joined by justices James Jeremiah Shea, Ingrid Gustafson and Dirk Sandefur in the decision. “We conclude the initial detention was unconstitutionally extended beyond what was necessary to effectuate the initial purpose of the stop. There were no articulable facts, other than prior suspected criminal histories, which were offered as justification to expand the search into a drug investigation. The District Court’s order dismissing Panasuk’s motion to suppress is reversed and this matter is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Roosevelt County Attorney Theresa Diekhans said Tuesday that District Court Judge David Cybulski granted her motion to dismiss the charges last week.
