SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Gonzaga's head baseball coach Mark Machtolf was sentenced on Wednesday after a DUI arrest back in June.
Nearly six months after Machtolf was arrested for driving under the influence in Reardan, his DUI charge has been reduced to reckless driving. As a result, Machtolf must pay a $1,500 fine and report to jail on Friday to spend one day there.
Machtolf was arrested on June 10 for driving under the influence in Reardan. Lincoln County Sheriff's Office obtained a breath sample the night of his arrest on June 10, and his blood alcohol content (BAC) was 0.284, three times the legal limit.
According to court documents, Machtolf attempted to have his case thrown out. The request was ultimately denied. On Sept. 26, the Adams County District Court received a motion from Machtolf to suppress evidence, stating that the officer who pulled him over did not have reasonable suspicion to perform a Terry stop on him.
For a Terry stop to be valid, an officer has to have reasonable suspicion based on facts that the person stopped has been or is about to be involved in a crime. Information given to an officer by a witness can be used as a reason to conduct a Terry stop "so long as the informant's tip demonstrates some indicia of reliability."
According to documents, in Machtolf's case, the responding officer said she conducted a Terry stop on him based on two tips.
Background information:
The first tip came from a 911 call, in which a Lincoln County dispatcher told the officer they had received a call about a possible DUI. The caller told the dispatcher that the truck "was all over the road and had poor lane travel" on Highway 2 in Reardan.
An officer spotted the truck within two minutes of the call, and later they determined it was driven by Machtolf.
As Machtolf drove past the officer, she was waived down by a man in a white truck. The man reportedly told the officer he had just called 911 to report that the truck was possibly being driven by a drunk driver, as he saw the truck swerving and "forcing other vehicles off the roadway."
As the man was speaking with the officer, they observed the truck pulling into a store parking lot. Machtolf got out of the truck and entered the store. The officer was approximately 20 feet away from the entrance of the store when she observed Machtolf exiting the store several minutes later. According to her, Machtolf was "stumbling and having difficulty walking in a straight line" while walking back to his truck.
Court documents state the initial 911 call and the man's conversation with the officer "demonstrate sufficient indicia of reliability." Additionally, the officer's observations of Machtolf stumbling and having difficulty walking corroborated suspicious activity.
The court found the officer had "sufficient reasonable suspicion" to conduct the Terry stop on Machtolf and denied his motion to suppress evidence.
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