MI: Unreasonable mistake of law voids search

Defendant’s arrest was without probable cause for violating a no trespassing ordinance. It was a public place, open for business, defendant briefly entered and did nothing wrong. The search incident to the arrest thus fails too. Mistake of law as to probable cause here was unreasonable. People v. Maggit, 2017 Mich. App. LEXIS 884 (May 30, 2017) (not citing Heien).

The facts showed reasonable suspicion for a stop for avoiding a fixed immigration checkpoint on a thinly traveled road where a car with out-of-state plates sought to avoid the checkpoint by making a U-turn. In the officers’ experience, a U-turn almost always meant there were people being smuggled in the car. United States v. Cerecer-Fraire, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82455 (D.N.M. May 30, 2017).*

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