Youngstown Daily Legal News

Conviction upheld for man found with heroin in his sock

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 6, 2014

The 12th District Court of Appeals issued an opinion recently affirming a drug possession conviction for a man found with heroin in his sock during a traffic stop.

Eric Arrasmith was charged with possession of heroin in March 2013 after he was found in a car suspected of transporting heroin from Dayton to London.

He filed a motion to suppress the evidence against him, arguing that it was obtained during a constitutionally invalid search.

When the Madison County Court of Common Pleas denied Arrasmith’s motion, he pleaded no contest.

The state presented evidence that a Madison County drug task force was conducting GPS surveillance of Danny Lee Sargent’s car prior to Arrasmith’s arrest.

The monitoring had shown that the vehicle often traveled to Dayton, where the occupants allegedly stole items, sold them and used the money to purchase heroin.

The car would then return to London, where the occupants allegedly sold the heroin.

On the date in question, the task force saw that Sargent’s vehicle spent about six hours in the Dayton area.

It then notified Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy Roger Heflin to stop the vehicle if he saw any traffic violations.

After Heflin saw the car fail to signal a turn, he activated his cruiser lights and siren but the car continued to drive for about a mile.

As the car drove, Heflin said he could see the rear passenger, Arrasmith, make furtive movements, bending over in his seat as though he was trying to hide something near his feet.

Eventually, the car stopped after another cruiser joined in pursuit.

The deputies ordered the three occupants out of the car, noting that Sargent was driving, another suspected drug dealer was in the passenger seat and Arrasmith was alone in the back.

Heflin took Arrasmith to the side to conduct a pat down for officer safety.

Arrasmith continued to flex his arms and pull back from the cruiser as Heflin patted him down and eventually the deputy handcuffed him out of concern for officer safety.

Heflin then continued his search and found a bulge in Arrasmith’s sock that proved to be a container of heroin.

The common pleas court found him guilty as charged and sentenced him to one year in prison.

On appeal, Arrasmith argued that the drugs should have been suppressed because Heflin lacked the authority to remove anything but a weapon from his person.

The three-judge appellate panel first established that Heflin had the authority to conduct a pat down pursuant to Terry v. Ohio, because he had reason to believe the car’s occupants may have been armed and dangerous.

“Under the ‘plain feel’ doctrine, if, during a pat-down, the officer feels an object whose contour or mass makes its identity immediately apparent as contraband, the officer may seize the object,” Judge Robin Piper wrote for the court.

Still, Arrasmith contended that Heflin could not have known the bulge in his sock was heroin.

Based on the circumstances, however, the judges disagreed.

They noted that Arrasmith was found in a car that was part of a heroin investigation, returning from an area thought to sell heroin with two men suspected of selling heroin.

“Once Deputy Heflin acquired the requisite probable cause, he was authorized to remove the bulge based under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement,” Judge Piper stated, overruling Arrasmith’s argument.

Presiding Judge Robert Hendrickson and Judge Michael Powell concurred and the group affirmed Arrasmith’s conviction.

The case is cited State v. Arrasmith, 2014-Ohio-4173.

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