LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court has denied reviewing a case involving an Ionia County sheriff’s deputy stopping an individual for speeding despite disagreements over what the correct applicable speed limit was.
The case would have been an appeal to the state’s Court of Appeals decision that the deputy incorrectly determined the speed limit to justify the stop, according to court documents.
In 2015, the defendant was stopped by an Ionia County sheriff’s deputy for speeding on southbound Parsonage Road while driving at 43 miles per hour.
He was arrested after evidence obtained during the stop showed he was visibly impaired and for being a concealed pistol licensee in possession of a firearm while intoxicated.
A dissenting opinion of the state Supreme Court’s decision says the road did not have a southbound-posted speed limit, though there was a northbound-posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour.
A circuit court had originally determined that the deputy’s actions were “objectively reasonable” and not done in bad faith.
The Court of Appeals had determined that the legal speed limit – both northbound and southbound – was 55 miles were hour and that the driver had been going slower than that when he was stopped.
Read the Michigan Supreme Court’s full opinion here.
