PA: Whether the trash search leading to the search warrant was really on Wednesday not Thursday not material

Defendant’s trash was on an alleyway where all the other residents of that street put their trash, so it wasn’t on the curtilage. Based on the trash search, a warrant was sought for the house, but there was a mistake in saying the trash search was on Wednesday not a Thursday. This argument isn’t developed that it undermines probable cause, and it clearly has no bearing on the outcome even if it was because it doesn’t undermine the probable cause. Commonwealth v. Irvin, 2016 PA Super 27, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 77 (Feb. 8, 2016).

Defendant was under investigation first in 2010 for fraud and credit card fraud, and a GPS device was placed on his vehicle without a warrant. The vehicle immediately went to a repair shop for a week, so the device was retrieved. At the time of the traffic stop for speeding, the GPS was not on the vehicle, so defendant’s claim he was being tailed by the GPS fails. He was speeding, and any ulterior motive fails. Defendant’s vehicle was then lawfully impounded for a fictitious tag, and the following inventory was proper and followed procedure. Moreover, “[t]he officers believed that they had probable cause to arrest Lumbus for fraud. Accordingly, Officer Bullins asked Lumbus to step out of the vehicle and placed him under arrest.” The inventory produced evidence of fraud. In the course of the investigation, the Secret Service got, what the trial court found, was invalid consent from defendant’s grandmother to search her garage. No matter, defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in her garage. State v. Lumbus, 2016-Ohio-380, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 324 (8th Dist. Feb. 4, 2016).*