State v. Billings

Citations

• 2021 Ohio 2194

Syllabus

OBSTRUCTING – PROBABLE CAUSE – SEARCH & SEIZURE – SUPPRESSION: Where the only ground upon which defendant's motion to suppress challenged the validity of his warrantless arrest was the lack of probable cause to arrest and defendant stipulated at the suppression hearing that lack of probable cause to arrest was the sole issue, the trial court erred by granting the motion to suppress on grounds that defendant raised for the first time in his posthearing closing argument because the state was not afforded an opportunity to present evidence on the grounds not raised by defendant in the motion to suppress. The trial court erred by granting the motion to suppress based on the lack of probable cause to arrest defendant at a traffic stop in which defendant was a passenger of the stopped vehicle, where defendant's conduct provided probable cause to arrest him for obstructing official business: defendant refused a police officer's order to turn around and place his hands behind his back, re-entered a vehicle that that he had just vacated upon a police officer's order, refused police officers' repeated orders to exit the vehicle, and held on to the vehicle's interior to prevent police officers from pulling him out of the vehicle, all of which impeded the officers' investigation of the initial traffic stop.