CO declines to give greater state const’l rights to closed container

Defendant was stopped for fictitious tags, and he had a revoked DL and no insurance, too. An inventory of the vehicle was conducted, and a closed cooler was searched. Conceding the search valid under the Fourth Amendment, he argued that the state constitution should go further, but he failed. It’s apparent that the state supreme court considers the state constitution coextensive with the Fourth Amendment on inventory. People v. Parks, 2015 COA 158, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 1719 (Nov. 5, 2015).

Defendant forfeited one argument on appeal that he was illegally arrested by his stop because it wasn’t presented to the district court. But, deciding the issue anyway as subsumed within another argument [so why’d they say forfeited?], there was reasonable suspicion for the stop based on the CI’s detailed information. Under collective knowledge, however, another officer had probable cause, and that’s sufficient for the automobile exception to apply. United States v. Sands, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 19240 (7th Cir. Nov. 4, 2015).*

2255 petitioner’s search claim can’t be reached on post-conviction because it was waived below and freestanding Fourth Amendment claims can’t be review on post-conviction. On the merits, he loses because of apparent consent by his girlfriend to consent to a seizure of the computer they both used. United States v. Trepanier, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148197 (S.D.Ohio Nov. 2, 2015).*

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