Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of May 18, 2015

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Dunn v. State, No. 02-14-00059-CR (May 21, 2015) (Walker, J., joined by Gardner and Gabriel, JJ.).

Held:  Because the constitutional prerequisite for a traffic stop is reasonable suspicion of a violation of the law, including a traffic law, the jury charge was not erroneous for instructing the jury that reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation justifies a traffic stop; the evidence supported the trial court's denial of Dunn's motion to suppress evidence; Dunn failed to rebut the presumption of validity given a search warrant affidavit.

State v. Crawford, No. 02-14-00289-CR (May 21, 2015) (March 19, 2015 opinion withdrawn) (Gabriel, J., joined by Sudderth, J.; Dauphinot, J., concurs with opinion).

Held:  Affidavit requesting search warrant for blood draw supplied substantial basis for the magistrate to determine probable cause supported issuance of the requested warrant. The trial court erred by failing to defer to the magistrate's probable-cause determination, given the probable-cause facts shown in the four corners of the affidavit. The probable cause supporting the search warrant allowed admission of the blood-test results based on the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule even if the search warrant contained a defect.

Concurrence:  Due process requires some limit to the good-faith exception for inadequate warrants.