Leaving Inver Grove Heights on Concord? Know This Stretch of Road First
A win for a Pacyga Trial Lawyers client shows how a “tip” alone almost cost a driver his license.
You leave a club late at night. You’ve had a couple hours to sober up. Then red and blue lights fill your mirror before you even hit the freeway.
That’s exactly how it started for one of our clients last year, driving away from a well known night club in the south metro near I-494. It’s an area we see DWI enforcement hit hard, and this case shows exactly why a stop there doesn’t automatically mean a conviction — or even a valid driver’s license revocation.
The Myth: “If Police Got a Tip, That’s Enough”
A lot of people assume that once an officer says “I got a call about you,”; the rest is a formality. It isn’t. Police still need their own legal justification for every step — the stop, the questioning, and the arrest.
What Actually Happened
A club manager called police about a man who “might not be safe to drive.” Not a crash. Not a specific violation. No specific facts. Just a hunch, passed along secondhand.
An officer from the city where the club was located raced out — at a high rate of speed, crossing his own lane lines — to find the car before it got away. He sped through town and into the next. When he caught up to a vehicle, he pulled a driver over and later claimed it was for a late turn signal. But the body camera told a different story: when the driver asked what he’d done wrong,
not once but twice, the officer never mentioned a turn signal. He only asked about the club and whether the driver had been drinking.
The officer claimed that the driver failed a field sobriety test, six signs of impairment out of six.
The Result
We asked the judge to review the video, the testimony, and the officer’s own account. We argued that there should have not been a stop to begin, and once there was a traffic stop each and every step that came after it was defective under the law. The judge agreed and agreed to rescind (rescind means undo) the license revocation entirely. The tip, the testimony, and the “six out of six”; all fell apart once someone looked closely.
What This Means For You
A phone call to police is not necessarily enough to get you pulled over during a traffic stop. If you were stopped in this area, or anywhere in the Twin Cities, don’t assume the tipster’s or the officer’s word is the end of the story. If you want to know more about options for your situation give me a call: Marie Pacyga at 612-339-5844.
This post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different.
Contact an attorney to discuss your specific situation.