United States v. Timothy Paul McCoy

A police officer pulled over Timothy Paul McCoy for driving with a burned-out headlight. As the officer approached McCoy’s open window, he noticed an unusually strong odor of air freshener, which the officer knew from his experience was often used to mask the smell of controlled substances, and also observed that McCoy seemed very nervous. Because McCoy did not have a driver’s license or other identification with him, the officer asked McCoy to come back to his cruiser. McCoy sat in the front seat with the officer while the officer ran a computer check on McCoy and wrote out McCoy’s citation.…