Department of Motor Vehicles staff brought a search tactic reportedly used at Northern Virginian proms a little farther south Saturday night. As limousines pulled up to Colonial Forge High School's junior-senior prom, DMV agents asked to search the vehicles.
Most drivers agreed to the searches, except for one.
Prom-goers began arriving at the Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center around 8 p.m. Once limousine drivers dropped off passengers, DMV enforcement agents asked to see chauffeur licenses and to search vehicles for alcohol and drugs.
Most limousine drivers submitted to the searches, but Jason Belman, of Elsie Belman Limousine and Sedan Service, refused to let agents search his vehicle.
He dropped off his passengers, Robert Hensel Jr. and Ashley Payne, at around 9:30 p.m, he said. And then agents pulled over his 2005 Lincoln stretch limousine and two other limousines. They asked for documents and identification, to make sure he was licensed to drive a limo. He was.
"Then they asked if they could search my vehicle," Belman said. "I said, 'I'd rather not,' because my clients weren't there and I did not know if they wanted their things gone through. So I said no. They kinda got rude about it then."
Belman said the agents said they would call a K-9 unit.
"I said, 'Please do. I'm not hiding nothing.'"
Dogs sniffed outside the car without problem, but Belman refused their entry.
He was detained in his vehicle for about 50 minutes because he refused the search, he said.
"Another reason I didn't want them to search the vehicle is because they said, 'If anything's in there, you'll be charged. You're the captain of the vehicle.' Later they tried to change their story, but I know what I heard."
He asked the agents to call a friend of his on the Fredericksburg Police Force. When his friend showed up, Belman said he was released.
"I did not let the officers search my vehicle," he said.
His aunt, owner of the limousine service, backs her nephew's decision. Elsie Belman said when a policeman contacted her for permission to search the vehicle, she said no, too.
"I said, 'I just want to say one thing before I tell you no. Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." Eternal vigilance. That's why I'm saying no--not just for my clients' rights, but for mine, too. I'm not saying no to be mean.'
"The DMV has a right to ask for my license. They do not have a right to search the vehicle," Elsie Belman added.
The Fredericksburg Police said they were puzzled by the agents' behavior with Belman.
Sgt. Paul Peterson and another officer were hired by the Expo Center to work security at the prom.
"I thought he was a nice guy," Peterson said of Belman, adding he could understand why the driver was irritated by the DMV's treatment.
He said Fredericksburg Police have no right to search a vehicle, "not without probable cause of some kind of crime."
His colleague Sgt. Brian Layton, on duty last night, concurred.
"As [Belman] is the caretaker of his vehicle, he certainly has the right to deny any searches," Layton said.
However, Peterson said he didn't know if the DMV has some kind of special jurisdiction to conduct such searches.
"Ma'am," Peterson said when contacted yesterday, "You're asking something I can't answer."
However, "according to what the DMV [agents] said, last week, at another prom in Northern Virginia, they found illegal substances in one the limousines," he said.
The DMV investigator's name is Rick Nick, Peterson said. Neither Nick or the DMV could be reached for comment last night.
Prom dates Hensel and Payne were grateful for Belman's steadfastness.
"There was nothing we had to hide, but I appreciate the limousine service's decision to protect our privacy," Hensel, 21, said.
He noted agents asked Belman four or five times to search, but he continued to say no.
"The other drivers were intimidated," Hensel said.
He also noted that the agents were checking only limos--and he thought that wasn't fair.
"Passenger vehicles were going into the parking lot and they were just letting them pass by. I understand where [the agents] are coming from, but they need to do it for every vehicle."
Hensel said he highly recommends the Belman limousine service.
"People have the right to privacy," Belman said. "They have the right to not be searched--especially without probable cause."
To reach MELISSA NIX:
Email: mnix@freelancestar.com