State v. Toro

In State v. Toro, 229 N.J. Super. 215, 551 A.2d 170 (App.Div.1988), certif. denied, 118 N.J. 216, 570 A.2d 973 (1989), the Court held that police officers who observed a package at the foot of a driver stopped for a motor vehicle offense, which they suspected was a container for drugs, could ask what was in the package without giving Miranda warnings. Although the police officers in Toro ordered the driver out of the car and frisked him for weapons before questioning him, we concluded that the questioning was not "custodial": Defendant was not told that he was under arrest, he was not handcuffed and he was not subjected to any search beyond a patdown for weapons. Furthermore, defendant was detained only briefly before he was asked about the contents of the package, and the police questioning consisted of only a few, noncoercive questions. "Treatment of this sort cannot fairly be characterized as the functional equivalent of formal arrest." Berkemer v. McCarty, supra, 468 U.S. at 442, 104 S. Ct. at 3152 , 82 L. Ed. 2d at 336. . . . Rather, the officer's actions from the time they observed the suspicious package until defendant revealed that it contained cocaine constituted a Terry "stop and inquiry" in order to "obtain information confirming or dispelling the officer's suspicions." Berkemer v. McCarty, supra, 468 U.S. at 439, 104 S. Ct. at 3150 , 82 L. Ed. 2d at 334. Id. at 221, 551 A.2d 170.