State of Tennessee v. Robert Cooper

The appellant, Robert Cooper, pled guilty to one count of possession of more than 300 grams of cocaine with the intent to sell and one count of possession of more than 300 grams of cocaine with the intent to deliver. The trial court imposed a total effective sentence of eighteen years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. As a condition of his pleas, the appellant reserved the following certified question of law: Whether the stop of the [appellant] for a minor "cite and release" traffic violation which provided for a fine only, the detention of the [appellant], the placement of the [appellant] in the secured area of the officer's patrol car, the use of a drug dog "run" around the [appellant's] vehicle, and the subsequent search of the [appellant's] vehicle violated the rights of the [appellant] under the federal and state constitutions and, therefore, all evidence resulting from the seizure and search should be suppressed. Upon review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.