Category Archives: Staleness

MT: SW obviates implied consent for BAC test

The police having obtained a search warrant for defendant’s BAC, the implied consent statute doesn’t apply. State v. Clinkenbeard, 2025 MT 54 (Mar. 25, 2025). Defendant’s long standing drug trafficking was not stale. 2022 information was refreshed by 2023 information. … Continue reading

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CA10: Siccing police dog on sleeping man wasn’t subject to QI

Siccing a police dog on a sleeping man not subject to qualified immunity. Luethje v. Kyle, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 6385 (10th Cir. Mar. 19, 2025). The CI’s information on a video showed his basis of knowledge and provided probable … Continue reading

Posted in Arrest or entry on arrest, Informant hearsay, Probation / Parole search, Qualified immunity, Staleness | Comments Off on CA10: Siccing police dog on sleeping man wasn’t subject to QI

PA: For crime of obstructing a search, def didn’t have to see SW to know there was one when he was told

Defendant’s conviction for obstructing a search is affirmed. He was not entitled to a jury instruction that he had to have seen or read the warrant first where it was not disputed that he knew there was a warrant. Commonwealth … Continue reading

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E.D.Mo.: Single image that officer opined was CP is PC

“Under Supreme Court and Eighth Circuit law, Detective Erwin’s professional opinion [based on her experience] that the file contained child pornography was sufficient to establish probable case for the issuance of the search warrant. See Ornelas, 517 U.S. at 700; … Continue reading

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D.Mass.: SnapChat warrant didn’t go stale after six months [would it ever?]

SnapChat warrant wasn’t stale: “The passage of more than six months between Cardoso’s messages to Pyrtle and issuance of the October 2021 warrant did not undermine probable cause to believe that data from Pyrtle’s Snapchat account would provide evidence of … Continue reading

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OH6: Background information didn’t make SW affidavit stale

Information in the affidavit for warrant about a 2021 overdose was valid background and not stale information. State v. Martin, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS 727 (6th Dist. Mar. 7, 2025). Officers getting a search warrant to enter to arrest was … Continue reading

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OH5: Drug dog officer’s touching car to redirect dog wasn’t a search

The officer’s briefly touching the vehicle’s exterior to redirect the canine’s focus did not constitute a search. The dog’s certification and training were sufficient to establish its reliability, absent conflicting evidence from the defendant. This traffic stop was not unconstitutionally … Continue reading

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IN: Cell phone ping to locate missing 13-year-old was with exigent circumstances

The ping of defendant’s cell phone to find him when a 13-year-old girl went missing was based on exigency under state statute. Brooks v. State, 2025 Ind. App. LEXIS 19 (Jan. 31, 2025). All the factors supported reasonable suspicion: CI … Continue reading

Posted in Cell phones, Emergency / exigency, Geolocation data, Reasonable expectation of privacy, Reasonable suspicion, Staleness | Comments Off on IN: Cell phone ping to locate missing 13-year-old was with exigent circumstances

CA8: When there’s PC for a SW, standing doesn’t even have to be decided

In a tax fraud case, there were six search warrants. Defendants challenge them all. Standing was in dispute, but doesn’t even have to be decided because there clearly is probable cause for all six, despite the claim that one piece … Continue reading

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M.D.Tenn.: Five-month-old information about CP on a Pinterest account not stale

There was probable cause for this child pornography warrant. Information about a Pinterest account that was five months old was not stale, and the images were adequately identified. United States v. Lynch, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2633 (M.D. Tenn. Jan. … Continue reading

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S.D.W.Va.: Reasonable during a traffic stop to ask about firearms in the car

The traffic stop was reasonable, and it was also reasonable for the officer to just ask whether there was a gun in the car for safety reasons because carrying in legal in this state. United States v. Martin, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading

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D.Neb.: SW for property not overbroad and sought in GF; it objectively was a single-family home

The officers did their due diligence before the search warrant and saw only that defendant’s property was a single-family dwelling. That’s how it appeared, that’s what public records said. Therefore, they searched in good faith. United States v. Rice, 2024 … Continue reading

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CA1: GFE applies to alleged staleness of SW

Defendant operated a pill-making operation in his house for years without detection. He moved to a new place without suspicion for it. The warrant for the prior house was not sufficiently stale to still be valid under the good faith … Continue reading

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DC: Illegal stop led to finding weapon, and it was not attenuated

Defendant was subjected to a stop that violated the Fourth Amendment. Information from that stop sufficiently led to a search of a dwelling producing a gun. That was fruit of the poisonous tree. There was a first search that could … Continue reading

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CA4: PC was shown def was likely a collector of CP so nine-month-old information wasn’t stale

“We are also not impressed by Sanders’s appellate contention that the facts in the Affidavit were so ‘stale’ as to negate probable cause.” Nine months. “Here, the Affidavit conveyed the same critical information to the magistrate judge — the person … Continue reading

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N.D.Ga.: Dissipation of PC for automobile exception search?

Defendant argues dissipation of probable cause in an automobile exception search, but cites no cases. Probable cause always has to exist at the time of the search. One can imagine that it can go stale, but not generally, and not … Continue reading

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CA9: “[T]he Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant to arrest a parole violator.”

“[T]he Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant to arrest a parole violator.” United States v. Carpenter, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13596 (9th Cir. June 5, 2024). The CI for the warrant is not disclosable under Roviaro. United States v. … Continue reading

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GA: SW for a physical nonperishable item wasn’t stale

In a child sex abuse case, the trial court erred in finding the warrant stale that a massaging tool used on the victim wouldn’t likely be there. It was a physical object and nonperishable. It was not stale. State v. … Continue reading

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C.D.Cal.: PC not shown for Jan. 6th target’s cell phone in California three years later

The government sought search warrants for cell phones in California in 2024 for six alleged misdemeanors at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The court finds no probable cause to believe that there is evidence on the phones three … Continue reading

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CA10: Def’s possession of a gun six days ago can add to RS now

In the reasonable suspicion calculus, the fact defendant had a gun six days earlier can be a factor in reasonable suspicion now. United States v. Minners, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 7734 (10th Cir. Apr. 2, 2024). Plaintiffs were loaded on … Continue reading

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