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After a three-year battle in lower courts, a constitutional question stemming from a drunk driving citation will be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court.

A woman argues she was wrongfully stopped by an Ohio State Highway Patrol sergeant after someone shouted, "You need to stop that vehicle. That lady is drunk."

According to court documents, it turns out Sherry Tidwell was drunk as she was pulling out of a parking stop at a Symmes Township Speedway on Nov. 11, 2017.

However, she has successfully argued that the person whoshouted to the officer was an anonymous tipster. The law states police are requiredto furtherinvestigate anonymous complaints before they can stop and search someone, according to Northern Kentucky University constitutional law professor Jennifer Kinsley.

"He could have followed her. He could have radioed for backup and had someone else follow her," Kinsley said.

She said the protocols are in place so people don't use police reports as a spiteful way to get revenge on people.

In court, the sergeant said the man who shouted at him had been told to do so by the Speedway clerk who had sold Tidwell alcohol. The man who shouted has never been identified, according to court records.

Prosecutors say the tip came from an "informed citizen." Former Hamilton County prosecutor and judge Mike Allen explained informed citizens are presumed to be telling the truth because they could face charges if they make false allegations.

This is the issue the Ohio Supreme Court will focus on: who did this tip come from?

The Ohio Public Defender's Office and Attorney General's Office have weighed in on the debate filing opposing briefs in the case.

The public defender argues that allowing stops prompted by anonymous tips does not meet the threshold for probable cause.

"(It) not only eviscerates the protections provided by the Fourth Amendment, it defies reason," the public defender's office wrote.

Attorney General Dave Yost's office disagrees.

"Neither the federal Constitution nor the Ohio Constitution requires an officer credibly tipped off about a drunk driver to let that driver violate a lawpotentially killing someone in the process,"Yost's brief states.

From an outside perspective, it may seem Tidwell couldget off on a technicality, but both Allen and Kinsley said cases like these are important.

"There are a set of rules. Police officers have to follow those rules," Allen said."They can say it was a technicality, but when you're talking about search and seizure it's more than a technicality. It really goes to the person's fundamental rights."

The Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case on March 30.

"Courts have always said it's better to let a guilty person go free than to put an innocent person in person," Kinsley said."It's in cases like these that we get to play those values out."

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Is it constitutional for an officer to stop a driver if someone shouts 'that lady is drunk'? - The Cincinnati Enquirer