A three-judge state Superior Court panel has upheld the conviction of a Gordon man who was involved in a traffic stop in June 2012 in Mahanoy City.
In an eight-page opinion filed Monday in Pottsville, the panel ruled police had the right to stop Steve Brozoska, 38, because they had information he was driving without a valid license.
"The traffic stop in this case ... was supported by reasonable suspicion," Judge Judith Ference Olson wrote in the panel's opinion.
By so ruling, the panel upheld county Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin's finding that Brozoska was guilty of driving without a license.
Dolbin so ruled on May 17, 2013, in a nonjury trial, sentencing Brozoska on the same day to pay costs and a $200 fine. Prosecutors withdrew a charge against Brozoska of false swearing.
Mahanoy City police had alleged Brozoska was driving without a valid license on June 17, 2012.
Brozoska had challenged the legality of the traffic stop, alleging police had no right to make it and that it was only a pretext to search for drugs.
In the opinion, Olson wrote that police need only reasonable suspicion to make a traffic stop and that was present in this case. Police had reliable information from a confidential informant that Brozoska did not have a license, and that provided legal support for them to stop Brozoska, Olson wrote.
"The information from the confidential informant was sufficient," she wrote.
Police testimony, which was believed by the trial court, also countered the assertion that the stop was only a pretext, Olson wrote.
Judges Sallie Updyke Mundy and Vic Stabile, the other panel members, joined Olson's opinion.