The undercover agents approached Daly’s vehicle, displaying their badges hanging from around their necks. Daly’s 47-page suit says she and her friends were terrified and unsure that the men surrounding her vehicle were agents. After some of the men banged on her windows and one drew a firearm, she drove off in fear, she said.

Daly was charged with assaulting two of the agents she grazed as she drove off in her Chevrolet TrailBlazer. She stopped nearby after a call to 911 assured her the agents were real.

Among other things, her suit alleged malicious prosecution, failure to train ABC agents appropriately, and six counts of assault and battery.

Hill told Hudson that the officers had reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. “It doesn’t matter what was in the cans — the officers had reasonable cause,” she said.

James B. Thorsen, one of Daly’s lawyers, said there was no reasonable cause to suspect wrongdoing. Among other things, there had not been an instance of the sale of alcohol to underage customers at the Harris Teeter store in 14 years, he said.

Hudson told Thorsen that police have a right to walk up to someone and begin a conversation. Under such circumstances a person could simply walk away, said the judge.