State v. Lees

Malone, J.:

*1022 The State appeals the district court's decision granting Aaron Matthew Lees' motion to suppress. The district court found that a Kansas highway patrol trooper had no legal grounds to stop Lees' vehicle for a brake light violation because the vehicle's brake lights complied with Kansas law. The State claims the trooper's mistake of law about the brake light violation, if he made one, was objectively reasonable, so the mistake did not invalidate the traffic stop. The State also claims the traffic stop was lawful under the trooper's inspection power as authorized in K.S.A. 8-1759a.…