State v. Leavitt

The majority affirms defendant’s conviction because it concludes from its review of the videotape of defendant’s arrest that the officer could have seen the weapon in plain view, as he testified that he had. I respectfully dissent because, on this record, I do not believe that a reasonable factfinder could find that the officer saw the weapon when he testified that he did.

Officer Vincent stopped defendant because he was operating a motor vehicle without a seatbelt. Vincent videotaped the entire encounter with defendant. The following facts are drawn from viewing the videotape and from…