Coming out of a Katrina damaged building with a backpack was probable cause

“Katrina probable cause”: Three men were seen coming out of an already being looted Burlington Coat Factory with backpacks right after Hurricane Katrina. The officer, who had worked security there before the hurricane, had reason to believe that they were looters, and that justified their stop and a search of the backpacks. State v. Jones, 970 So. 2d 1143 (La. App. 5th Cir. 2007), released for publication January 11, 2008.

Videotape of defendant’s hour long stop showed that defendant consented to a search of his car but not his person. He consented to a search of the car, and he was frisked and nothing of interest was found, and then he was told to empty his pockets and thus searched again but before anything was found in the car. The government conceded that search incident did not apply because the defendant was not under arrest at the time. United States v. Ocampo, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80898 (E.D. Mich. November 1, 2007).*

Preliminary hearing testimony was sufficient to show that there was probable cause for plaintiff’s arrest, so his false arrest civil case fails. Jackson v. County of Washtenaw, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80885 (E.D. Mich. October 31, 2007).*

The document search of 2255 petitioner’s house was not unlawful, so defense counsel was not ineffective for not challenging it. Hill v. United States, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80703 (D. Md. September 28, 2007).*