U.S. Justices Refuse to Review Appeal of Youth’s Drug Arrest

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by a young Orange County man who was arrested for carrying LSD when he was stopped by police on the street as a suspected truant from school.

The court, without comment Monday, let stand a ruling that the youth’s rights had not been violated.

The case stems from an incident on the morning of Feb. 28, 1983, when Newport Beach police stopped the defendant, identified in court documents only as James D., while he was carrying a book bag and walking on a sidewalk over a bridge three miles from the nearest school.

Officers said they suspected the youth was playing hooky because he appeared to be 15 or 16 years old.

After asking him for identification and questioning him, they said James appeared nervous and reached his hand into his jacket. The police said they ordered him to remove whatever was in his pocket and, when he resisted, they grabbed him. A hair brush and envelope fell to the ground, and the police said the envelope contained a blotter of LSD dots.

James then was arrested and charged with illegal possession of the drug.

The Fullerton youth said he was 17 and a high school graduate. He asked a juvenile court judge to throw out the case on grounds the police unlawfully stopped and searched him.

The judge threw out the charges after ruling that the officers lacked objective and reasonable suspicion to believe James was playing hooky. But the California Supreme Court last September reinstated the charges.

The state Supreme Court said the police acted reasonbly in stopping James. The fact that he appeared to be youthful and was carrying a book bag three miles from the nearest school while school was in session are adequate reasons for police to question him, the court said. The California justices said that stopping people in such cases for questioning is “the only effective means of identifying and locating truants.”

Also, the state court suggested that police should have more leeway to enforce truancy laws because their purpose is to return students to school or their parents and not to punish them.