United States v. Mendez

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:

On a December evening in 2003, appellant Lionel Mendez was pulled over by two police officers for failure to display a visible license plate or registration tag. He was asked to exit the vehicle, patted down for weapons and, although there were three small children in the car, told to sit on the curb behind the vehicle while a records check was conducted. In response to questioning about matters unrelated to the purpose of the traffic stop, Mendez ultimately told the officers that there was a gun in the car, at which point they arrested him, searched the car and found…