The Colorado-based federal appeals court concluded last week that Denver officers lacked reasonable suspicion when they detained a group of people who happened to park on a public street near a vehicle used by a shooter 12 hours prior and several miles away.
Prosecutors indicted one member of the group, Noah Huerta, for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Huerta sought to exclude evidence of the gun because it flowed from the officers’ allegedly unconstitutional pat-down. A trial judge rejected that request, while acknowledging officers’ assumptions were incorrect at the outset.
But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit believed the evidence was clear: It was unreasonable for police to suspect Huerta and the rest of his group had any connection to the shooting they were investigating…