PA: SW for house permitted search of guest’s pants that were on floor when the police arrived

Police came with a drug search warrant into the house of another where defendant was sleeping with a woman, and told him to get up. He reached for his nearby pants, and they took them and searched them finding his ID, money, and drugs. The police could search the pants because he wasn’t wearing them at the time they entered. Commonwealth v. Petty, 2017 PA Super 63, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 163 (March 10, 2017).

Defendant’s wife called the police to tell him that he’d be going out with a gun. They stopped him at the gas station near his house and frisked him for the weapon, but did not find it. They put him in a patrol car. She observed this from the house and called the police and said that the gun was hidden in his underwear. They got him out and searched again finding the gun in his groin area. The court finds probable cause. Therefore, the question of whether reasonable suspicion dissipated with the first frisk doesn’t have to be decided. Commonwealth v. Abdul-Alim, 2017 Mass. App. LEXIS 27 (March 9, 2017).*

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