D.Ariz.: Loaning car to another is waiver of expectation of privacy in contents

By loaning his car to another, defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the vehicle when the driver was stopped. United States v. Balcazar, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73409 (D. Ariz. March 8, 2010):

In One 1977 Mercedes Benz, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of her vehicle where she had voluntarily turned possession of that automobile over to a third party for his exclusive use and had taken no precautions to safeguard any privacy interest within the vehicle. 708 F.2d at 449. The relevant holding from One 1977 Mercedes Benz has been applied broadly in this district. In United States v. Vizcarra, 835 F. Supp. 1160, 1162 (D. Ariz. 1993), the Court held, “where the owner of a vehicle has turned that vehicle over to someone else, the owner retains an insufficient privacy interest to possess standing to challenge the search of that vehicle.”

As in One 1977 Mercedes Benz and Vizcarra, Velez-Willem turned his vehicle over to another person. Velez-Willem has offered no evidence regarding his expectation of privacy in the vehicle after he turned it over to Balcazar. Accordingly, Velez-Willem has not met his burden of demonstrating a reasonable expectation of privacy in the Ford Focus at the time the searches were conducted.

General allegations that plaintiff’s decedent was killed by an officer was insufficient under the Fourth Amendment. Garcia v. Hatcher, State of Nevada ex rel. Its Gaming Control Bd., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73377 (D. Nev. July 19, 2010)*:

Other than the allegation concerning police back-up, Plaintiffs do not allege any specific facts suggesting that Hatcher’s actions were unreasonable given the circumstances. Plaintiffs do not allege that Martinez was unarmed, that Martinez was not dangerous, or that Martinez was not attempting to flee the scene. Accordingly, Plaintiffs have failed to allege facts suggesting that Hatcher’s action amounted to a constitutional violation of the Fourth Amendment.