An Atlantic City car stop that resulted in seizure of a gun was not justified, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The case against Kenshabba Brookens is expected to be officially dismissed Monday, his attorney told BreakingAC.
But the reason he was pulled over was due to the officer's misunderstanding of the statute, Superior Court Judge Pam D'Arcy found.
"We have constitutional rights for a reason," attorney Durann Neil said after the decision. "Officers have gotten to the point where they feel as though they can make up reasons to illegally search. The judge saw right through this one."
Officer Ivaylo Ivanov testified at a suppression hearing last week that he stopped Brookens because a light was out over his license plate.
The statute requires all lights to be working on a vehicle, he said during the hearing. He said there are some vehicles that only have one light over the license plate, but that his understanding was that those that have two must have both in working order.
The judge, however, said the statute only addresses required lights, such as headlights and break lights. She also found that because the officer could see Brookens' license plate from farther than the required distance, the stop was not legal.
After the stop, the officer told Brookens the car would be searched due to the smell of marijuana and what appeared to be marijuana residue on the floor, the car would be searched. Marijuana smell is no longer a legal reason to search, but was at the time.
A small amount of marijuana along with a loaded handgun were found during the search, and Brookens was arrested. He was held in the jail for a week before he was released following a detention hearing, and lost his job, Neil said.
