Roanoke County Circuit Court April 14, 1995, Case No. CR95-330 (Commonwealth v. Bellinger)

By Judge Robert P. Doherty, Jr.

The question to be answered is whether or not the seizure of the object from the pocket of an inner layer of the Defendant’s pants was lawful.

Under the circumstances of this case, the officers did not have reasonable or articulable suspicion for a stop and frisk detention of Defendant. A pat down search would have been improper.