Page 34 - TPA Jourtnal September October 2023

Joe C. Tooley, Legal Digest Editor
Joe C. Tooley, Attorneys & Counselors, Rockwall, Texas
www.TooleyLaw.com 972-722-1058

TEXAS POLICE ASSOCIATION

LEGAL DIGEST

September - October 2023

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is the goal of this submission to extract those portions of relevant appellate
opinions or the syllabus of the legal reporter which bear directly upon law enforcement methods
and provide guidance for officers on an operational level. Much of the information pertaining to
these cases is lifted verbatim from the court opinion or syllabus with independent analysis inserted
as appropriate. Due to clarity for training purposes, the distinction between quotes from the
opinions and inserted analysis is not always identified and legal citations within the opinion are
often omitted. Emphasis is placed upon reported decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

PROBABLE CAUSE – operating a vehicle? FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

This is a probable cause case. Jennifer Aileen
Espinosa, Appellee, was found in her parked On August 20, 2019, at about 3:15 p.m., Ashley
vehicle in a school pickup line at an elementary Fajkus and her cousin were driving past Lakeshore
school just before school was dismissed. The Elementary School. School was about to be
engine was running, and she was asleep at the dismissed, and a line of bumper-to-bumper
wheel. It was later discovered that she was vehicles to pick up children had begun to form in
intoxicated. Appellee told the investigating officer the right-hand lane of the road. Fajkus testified that
that she hadnot been drinking and was on her way she and her cousin were driving past the line, when
to work, but told an eyewitness that she was on her she noticed the head of a person in one of the
way to a nearby middle school. The investigating vehicles was at an odd angle. She thought
officer arrested Appellee for DWI. that the person might have been experiencing a
medical emergency and asked her cousin to stop
Appellee filed a motion to suppress, arguing that the vehicle so she could check on the driver.
the officer did not have probable Fajkus found Appellee asleep in the driver’s seat.
cause. The trial court granted the motion, and the The vehicle’s engine wasrunning, and the
court of appeals affirmed the ruling of transmission was in park. Fajkus banged on the
the trial court. We granted review and will reverse driver’s-side door andwindow (the door was locked
the judgment of the court of appeals, and the windows rolled up), but she could not
vacate the ruling of the trial court, and remand the wakeAppellee. Someone from another vehicle
case to the trial court for further heard the commotion, exited her vehicle, and
proceedings. called 911, and according to Fajkus, “as soon as
911 was dialed, [Appellee] woke up and

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