SYCAMORE – A judge ruled Friday that Sycamore police improperly detained a federal postal inspector outside a massage parlor in June 2015, and tossed out any evidence obtained from the traffic stop.
Dean Kowalefski, 51, of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, was charged in June 2015 with soliciting a prostitute after police said employees at Spa One in Sycamore identified him in a photograph and said he gave a spa employee money in exchange for a sex act. Kowalefski had argued in July that police performed an unlawful search and seizure and arrested him without a valid warrant while he was not committing a crime.
Judge Philip Montgomery said that the police held Kowalefski for 62 minutes at the scene of a traffic stop for failure to signal. At a hearing in July, officers testified that a traffic stop typically takes 10 to 12 minutes.
“The courts have consistently held that the reasonableness of a traffic stop is determined by its duration,” the judge said. “... Although police are allowed to conduct an unrelated investigation, as is the case here, they are not allowed to prolong it past the time reasonably required to complete the writing of the ticket. In this case, clearly police kept the defendant at the scene longer than was reasonably required to complete the writing of the ticket without probable cause to arrest the defendant for a criminal offense.”
The judge said any evidence gathered at the scene of the stop after 10 to 12 minutes would be suppressed. That includes a picture of Kowalefski and the information that Kowalefski told police about how he found the massage parlor.
At the July hearing, Sycamore police officer Stacy Binkowski and Police Chief Glenn Theriault testified about Kowalefski’s arrest. After being pulled over, Kowalefski handed police his federal ID and asked the Sycamore officers to do him a “professional courtesy,” Theriault said.
Throughout the duration of the hourlong stop, Kowalefski never admitted to participating in any illegal activity. He did, however, tell police he found the massage parlor on a website that Theriault said is known for advertising prostitution, authorities said.
It was Kowalefski’s “elusive” answers to basic questions, and the fact that he was driving a government vehicle, that made police suspicious and led them to probe further, Theriault told the judge in July.
“At that point ... he’s admitted to me and said to me, ‘Yeah, I was in there. Come on, don’t make me say this.’ That reluctance to say something, that type of an answer to me says there’s something that’s being hidden,” Theriault said during the July hearing. “There’s more to the story.”
Police had been watching Spa One after receiving complaints from nearby residents about heavy traffic near it.
“We’re gratified at the court’s ruling this stop was unconstitutional,” Kowalefski’s attorney, Clay Campbell, said outside the courtroom after the decision.
He said his client hopes that prosecutors will dismiss the case in light of the judge’s ruling.
Montgomery said his ruling didn’t affect any of the evidence police gathered at the massage parlor.
Kowalefski is next due in court Nov. 22.