NM: Driver’s failure to produce proof of registration and insurance doesn’t permit search of console

Defendant’s failure to produce his registration and proof of insurance during a traffic stop didn’t give the officer justification to search the center console for it himself. Thus, defense counsel was ineffective for not raising this issue. State v. Howl, 2016 N.M. App. LEXIS 82 (July 14, 2016).

Defendant called 911 because his girlfriend was in his house and unresponsive. Police pieced together that he had a penchant for using homemade chloroform to knock her out for sex while she was unconscious. Defendant consented to a search of the house. Officers could have recorded the consent but didn’t and there’s no legal requirement that they do so. He later admitted to another officer he consented. It was voluntary. A witness mentioned that defendant seemed to have a problem with “kiddie porn” in the past. The witness also mentioned the chloroforming and the police found evidence of that. That corroborated the hearsay as to the potential child pornography. The search warrant wasn’t overbroad as to the computers and electronic media to be searched. United States v. Baer, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122424 (D.N.J. Sept. 9, 2016).*