UT: Over-perfumed vehicles can be searched

UTAH - The Utah Court of Appeals has ruled the overwhelming presence of air fresheners and strong smells can give police officers reasonable suspicion to search a car.

The decision came after Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Jason Jensen pulled over California resident Heather Richards for crossing the outside line and following too closely in November 2007. He found her car strewn with orange rinds and emanating the "bizarrely ... overwhelming strong" smell of air fresheners like Lysol and Armor All, according to an opinion released last week.

She told Jensen she was going to Minnesota to pick up her son, who did not like to fly. But the smells and the presence of two different cell phones made Jensen suspect drug trafficking. After she refused his request for a search he brought in a drug sniffing dog. The dog indicated on the trunk where troopers later found about 60 pounds of marijuana.

Richards argued the search was unconstitutional and moved to suppress the evidence, although she also entered a conditional guilty plea. Last week the appeals court agreed that the smell and the cell phones were "objective facts" that Jensen had learned through training and could be indications of drug activity.