NY3: Emptying purse on seat and saying ‘you can check my car, you can check me’ was consent

In a traffic stop, the officer saw credit cards with a male name but a female operating the car. “Upon asking the owner about the person named on the cards, the owner denied knowing that person or being the owner of the cards. Unprompted, she then emptied her purse onto the passenger seat, stated that she did not have any credit cards, and told the trooper, ‘you can check my car, you can check me.’” This was consent. People v. Hayden, 2017 NY Slip Op 08213, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8267 (3d Dept. Nov. 22, 2017).

Defendant initiated contact with the police, and that led to reasonable suspicion something was awry and the officer had defendant empty his pockets. Then he got consent to search defendant’s vehicle, and things belonging to a woman were found. Defendant claimed the vehicle had been rented by his sister from whom he’d borrowed the car. He was sent on his way. Later, the officer learned that the woman whose stuff was in defendant’s car had been murdered. The search of the car was by consent. People v. Davis, 2017 NY Slip Op 08214, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8278 (3d Dept. Nov. 22, 2017).*