A traffic stop may not be extended for a dog sniff unless the officer has reasonable suspicion of another crime, under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Rodriguez v. United States. Applying that rule, U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller found that Marquette County sheriff’s deputy Brendan Cutrell unlawfully prolonged Brian Burnside’s stop on Interstate 39. The court granted Burnside partial summary judgment on liability and denied the defendants’ competing motion, according to the decision and order.
When the traffic-stop work ended
The key question was whether the dog sniff added time after Cutrell finished addressing the traffic violations. Backfire News reports that the dog began sniffing at 10:57:16 p.m., Cutrell finished explaining the citations at 10:57:24, and the dog alerted at 10:57:41. The alert came 17 seconds after the citation explanation ended. The outlet’s account says the judge found that the sniff prolonged the detention during that interval.
The stop began on December 9, 2023, near the 96-mile marker on I-39. Cutrell pulled Burnside over for speeding and suspected illegal window tint, according to the court record. In Rodriguez, the Supreme Court held that a traffic stop’s duration is tied to the work needed to address the violation and related safety concerns; a dog sniff cannot justify extra detention merely because the delay is brief.
The judge found the reasons for further detention insufficient
The defendants cited Burnside’s driving, the window tint, cologne, nervousness, the trip from Wausau and the route to Wisconsin Dells as grounds for suspecting drug trafficking, according to Backfire News’s report on the ruling. The outlet reports that Stadtmueller found the tint was the only factor with a particularized connection to that suspicion. The judge’s conclusion, as quoted in the outlet’s account, was: “Collecting a list of innocent facts does not establish reasonable suspicion.”
The ruling also relied on the Supreme Court’s Rodriguez decision and the Seventh Circuit’s 2018 decision in United States v. Rodriguez-Escalera, Backfire News reports. Stadtmueller denied Cutrell qualified immunity, the outlet says, finding the legal basis for the detention inadequate.
Damages remain to be decided
Burnside sued Cutrell and Marquette County under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in February 2025, according to court filings. The county was named for indemnification purposes, with no separate municipal-liability claim, Backfire News reports. With liability decided, the remaining trial issue is what damages, if any, Burnside is owed.
