Search of juvenile’s purse unjustified just because she was allegedly suicidal

Search of juvenile’s purse was unjustified. Police received a 911 call from her mother who claimed that she was suicidal, and the police found her walking down the street carrying a blue purse. Officers seized the purse and searched it finding only a marijuana pipe. They searched the house with the mother’s consent finding nothing. In re Tiffany O., 217 Ariz. 370, 174 P.3d 282, 520 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 7 (2007):

P11 There is no evidence in the record that the 9-1-1 call mentioned that Appellant had or was threatening anyone with a weapon. There was no sign of a weapon when the officers arrived on the scene, and upon their arrival, they saw no domestic violence or suicide attempt taking place. Officer Stewart testified, however, that the seizure of the purse was justified because when Mother called 9-1-1 she indicated Appellant was suicidal and, therefore, he thought there might be a weapon in the purse with which Appellant might harm either herself or him. We assume, without deciding, that this justifies Officer Stewart’s seizure of Appellant’s purse.

Masschusetts has previously held that surreptitious recording by a snitch in a private home violated the state constitution. In this case, a visitor was involved, and the court held that probable cause and exigent circumstances justified it. Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, 450 Mass. 302, 877 N.E.2d 1274 (2007):

We assume, without deciding, that the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the private home in which Tirado was staying. See Commonwealth v. Blood, supra at 68. Thus, a “search” and “seizure” occurred in the constitutional sense when police secretly wiretapped the defendant’s conversation in Tirado’s wife’s home. See id. at 77 (“As to each of [the] conversations [recorded in a private home], we hold that its warrantless electronic search by surreptitious transmission and its electronic seizure by surreptitious recording were in violation of art. 14”). Even given this assumption, the interception did not violate art. 14 because it was justified by probable cause and exigent circumstances. See id. at 70 n.10 (“We do not, of course, preclude the propriety of warrantless electronic surveillance conducted on probable cause in exigent circumstances”).

The defendant contends that exigent circumstances did not exist because the police were in control of the timing of the defendant’s arrival at Tirado’s wife’s apartment and could have obtained a warrant before asking Tirado to telephone the defendant. We conclude otherwise. The police here acted reasonably throughout. A large shipment of cocaine had been addressed to and signed for by a suspect who, in the face of this incriminating evidence, denied immediately that the package was his, claiming instead that it belonged to a “friend.” The police cannot be faulted for asking Tirado to contact the defendant in an attempt to substantiate Tirado’s story promptly.

Once Tirado placed the telephone call to the defendant and the defendant indicated that he would be arriving in a taxicab, both probable cause and exigent circumstances were present. Tirado’s initially questionable story was quickly turning into reality, and there was no time to obtain a warrant. Officer Soto’s observation that a man matching Tirado’s description had entered a taxicab at the address Tirado had given, and was en route to 5 Ardmore Street, further confirmed Tirado’s story. We reemphasize that the standards for an exigency are strict, Commonwealth v. Forde, 367 Mass. 798, 800, 329 N.E.2d 717 (1975), and police cannot intentionally create exigencies to evade the warrant requirement. In this case, however, we conclude that the police acted reasonably in the course of their investigation, and, given the unexpected turn of events, had no opportunity to obtain a warrant. See id. at 802-803 (“where the police are conducting an investigation of continuing criminal activities, the exigency of circumstances which develop unexpectedly is not diminished by the fact that in hindsight it appears that there would have been time to obtain a warrant”).