State v. Kettlewell

In State v. Kettlewell, 149 Vt. 331, 544 A.2d 591 (1987), an informant told the police that "Mexicans" were on his land and that he did not know whether they were legal or not. The Court held that this equivocal statement, together with the fact that the suspects were speaking a Spanish dialect spoken in Mexico and were in a type of vehicle often used to smuggle aliens, was not sufficiently specific to justify the detention of the suspects. See 149 Vt. at 338-39, 544 A.2d at 595. In Kettlewell, the Court was required to infer, based on very general evidence, that both a crime had been committed and the suspects had committed it.