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whether Knight-Walker consented after the traffic stop was, or should have been, complete. The
answer is no. Knight-Walker consented to the search well within the amount of time “tasks tied
to the traffic infractions [were]—or reasonably should have been—completed.” Rodriguez, 575
U.S. at 355.
Adopting Knight-Walker’s concession that the unrelated questioning included “two
questions spanning approximately twelve-seconds” and that the mission of the traffic stop had
not ended when that questioning occurred, nothing in the record suggests the traffic stop would
have ended 12 seconds later but for Officer Allen asking those two questions.16 Thus, Knight-
Walker provided consent to search while she was still lawfully detained for the original traffic
stop. That also means the evidence uncovered here was not the product of the alleged
constitutional violation. It was the product of Knight-Walker’s consent that occurred during the
seizure authorized by the mission of the original traffic stop.
The more difficult question is whether Knight-Walker voluntarily consented to the
search. Consent to a search “must be unequivocal, specific, and intelligently given . . . and it is
not lightly to be inferred.” Hawkins v. Commonwealth, 65 Va. App. 101, 107 (2015) (alteration
in original) (quoting Elliott v. Commonwealth, 7 Va. App. 234, 239 (1988)). Under the
circumstances, while detained in the middle of an ongoing traffic stop, when Knight-Walker had
no license and could not drive away, it is a real question whether Knight-Walker freely and
voluntarily consented to the search by hesitantly getting out of the vehicle. Yet it is a question
for a factfinder, and here, the factfinder concluded that she consented based on her conduct of
16 The body camera footage shows that it took Officer Allen ten seconds just to walk
from his police car to Knight-Walker’s car. In other words, assuming Officer Allen never
engaged in 12 seconds of unrelated investigation, it would have taken him more than 12 seconds
to walk back to his car, write out the summons, and return to Knight-Walker’s car with license
and summons in hand. Knight-Walker never argued below, and no evidence suggests, that
Officer Allen deliberately delayed in executing this traffic stop in any way. Jump to an indexed page (23 of 23)