State v. Smith

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

This appeal addresses the admissibility of evidence seized in the pat-down search of a passenger in a lawfully stopped automobile. The critical questions concern the reasonableness of a State Trooper’s ordering a passenger out of a car, and his subsequent pat-down of that passenger. We find that both the trooper’s order to the passenger to step out of the car and his pat-down of that passenger were reasonable, and hence permissible under the Fourth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and article I, paragraph 7 of the New Jersey…