State of Tennessee v. Jacob Dale Gormsen

The defendant, Jacob Dale Gormsen, pled guilty to one count of driving under the influence, a Class A misdemeanor, in violation of Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-401 (2010). He reserved a certified question challenging the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress. The defendant asserts that his encounter with law enforcement was not consensual and that law enforcement had no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to initiate an investigatory stop after discovering him unconscious in a running vehicle on the road. We conclude that the interaction between the defendant and the officer began as a consensual police-citizen encounter and that the officer possessed reasonable suspicion at the point that the interaction became an investigatory stop. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of the motion to suppress.