CA1: Possession of two false DLs support search incident for backup records

Defendant was arrested for having two false DLs, and the officers conducted a search of the car. The district court found it a valid inventory and did not decide search incident. On appeal, the court of appeals found search incident dispositive based on the record it had. It was reasonable for the officer to conclude there would be other evidence of the false IDs in the car. United States v. Mensah, 737 F.3d 789 (1st Cir. 2013):

We review the district court’s ultimate ruling on suppression de novo, accepting its underlying factual findings unless clearly erroneous. United States v. Wurie, 728 F.3d 1, 2-3 (1st Cir. 2013). Because the court found a lawful inventory search, it did not address the government’s argument that the officers’ examination of the vehicle also was justified as a search incident to arrest. Without suggesting any reservations about the district court’s analysis, we choose to focus on the search-incident-to-arrest doctrine because it easily disposes of the claim of error. See United States v. Sanchez, 612 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 2010) (noting that a district court order denying suppression may be affirmed on any ground supported by the record).

A warrantless search incident to arrest is permissible “when it is reasonable to believe that evidence of the offense of arrest might be found in the vehicle.” Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 335, 343, 129 S. Ct. 1710, 173 L. Ed. 2d 485 (2009). Here, the officers’ investigation had revealed that Mensah had obtained driver’s licenses under two different names, one of which was false. The troopers had a valid arrest warrant charging him with unlawfully obtaining a driver’s license under a false name. When Mensah was stopped while driving, he gave officers a license and registration in his own name. The dispositive issue is thus whether the officers could have reasonably believed that the license bearing Mensah’s second, false identity — or other documents showing that Mensah had secured a license under the Appiah name — also would be in the vehicle.