A judge rejected a public defender's argument that police illegally stopped and searched his client in a car last year.

The stop resulted in Leighton U. Ellis-Kerr, 32, of Decatur, Ga., being arrested and charged with a felony for carrying a firearm without a license on May 8, 2018. During a hearing in February, Joseph Smith questioned officer Nicholas Shulik's reason for pulling a car over in which Ellis-Kerr was a passenger. Shulik testified that he observed a gun underneath Ellis-Kerr, leading to his arrest. Responding to Smith's questions, Shulik said that the car hadn't violated any traffic laws nor did Ellis-Kerr act strangely or in a way to arouse suspicion from police. This led Smith to ask Judge William Shaffer to drop the charge. He argued that the police search was illegal, since they had no reason to pull the car over in the first place.

Shulik also testified that Butler City Police were in the area after getting a call about an “armed robbery in progress.”

Shaffer denied Smith's request in a filing made on March 15, writing, “The court finds the defendant was not seized by the police absent adequate suspicion.”

Ellis-Kerr is in Butler County Prison, where he has been detained since Aug. 10, 2018, after he was unable to post a $75,000 bail over drug-related charges in another case. He also has a third case in which the bail was set at $25,000. He has not been found guilty in any of these cases.