BOISE — It turns out that a drug-sniffing dog accidentally touching its nose to a car’s door handle isn’t automatically an unlawful search after all. Sorting out why, and whether the dog was actually searching for drugs, is up for debate.
The Idaho Supreme Court on Tuesday, Oct. 14, published its opinion on State v. Pendleton, overturning an Ada County district judge’s decision to suppress drug evidence discovered during a 2021 traffic stop.
In October of that year, police conducted a traffic stop on Shawna Rae Pendleton because her vehicle registration had expired. An officer had his drug-detection dog, Edo, conduct a free-air sniff around the outside of the vehicle. Edo’s nose briefly touched the driver’s-side door handle and possibly touched the passenger-side handle…