NEWPORT BEACH – After arresting a woman for driving under the influence, a Newport Beach police officer cited a broken license plate light as justification for the traffic stop, but the patrol car video “clearly demonstrated” the light was working, meaning the motorist was “not lawfully arrested,” according to public documents.
Drunken-driving charges against Dana Point resident Patricia M. Power, 54, were dropped, and the Department of Motor Vehicles, in reinstating her driver’s license, found there was not “reasonable cause” for her arrest.
The city earlier this year agreed to pay $1,670 for her attorney’s fees and towing costs, according to documents released to The Orange County Register as part of a public-records request.
“I don’t think it’s right, what he did,” Power said of the traffic stop by officer Michael Moore.
City officials had no comment as of press time and had not replied to a request for a copy of the video recording. Power says she had just dropped off a friend in a popular nightlife area near John Wayne Airport on May 30, 2009, when the traffic stop took place.
In a police report, Moore wrote: “I observed the vehicle … did not have a functioning license plate light. … I activated my vehicle’s overhead red and blue lights … to conduct a traffic stop on the driver of the vehicle for the violation.”
“While speaking with (Power), I smelled a moderate odor of an alcohol beverage emitting from her breath and person. I also noticed her eyes were bloodshot,” wrote Moore, who was accompanied in the patrol car by Officer Paul Sarris.
A subsequent breath test detected a 0.12 percent blood-alcohol level, and Power was arrested and charged with DUI.
In October, however, DMV officials said the patrol car video “clearly demonstrated that the rear license plate light was lit and functioning well.”
Therefore, she “was not lawfully arrested for a violation of driving under the influence of alcohol,” the DMV report says.
Farrah Emami, spokesman for the Orange County district attorney, would provide only limited comment on the case, saying charges were dropped because prosecutors “could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
In late March, the city agreed to cover Power’s attorney’s fees and towing costs. The payment was disclosed recently when the Register requested details on the city’s legal bills.
Of the arrest, Power says, “I’m embarrassed that it happened, especially at my age.”
As for why the stop happened to begin with, Power notes it was prom time and she was near several bars. “I think I was pulled over because I was in that area, and he was more or less cherry picking,” she said.
There is considerable nuance in the laws surrounding traffic stops – checkpoints are generally legal under federal law, for example, but probable cause is generally required before individual motorists can be pulled over.
Ronald D. Rotunda, a constitutional law professor at Chapman University, said police typically cannot stop individual motorists if there is no suggestion they have done something wrong.
“They’ve got to have a reason,” Rotunda said. “You can’t just stop people on the road.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7952 or joverley@ocregister.com
