VA: Arrest for trespassing justified search incident

Defendant was seen under a “No Trespassing” sign behind a business engaging in hand-to-hand drug sales. The officer had probable cause to arrest for trespassing and then engage in a search incident. Joyce v. Commonwealth, 56 Va. App. 646, 696 S.E.2d 237 (2010)*:

In this case, we need not address whether the officer had reasonable grounds to believe Joyce was armed and dangerous for purposes of a Terry frisk if — as the trial court found — the officer had probable cause to arrest Joyce for trespassing prior to his search. “If an officer has probable cause to believe that an individual has committed even a very minor criminal offense in his presence, he may, without violating the Fourth Amendment, arrest the offender.” Atwater v. Lago Vista, 532 U.S. 318, 354, 121 S. Ct. 1536, 149 L. Ed. 2d 549 (2001). The power to arrest is invariably coupled with the power to search incident to arrest. Moore, 553 U.S. at 178. We thus turn to the question whether the officer had probable cause to arrest Joyce for trespassing.

As the United States Supreme Court has recently emphasized, the “very phrase ‘probable cause’ confirms that the Fourth Amendment does not demand all possible precision.” Herring v. United States, 129 S. Ct. 695, 699, 172 L. Ed. 2d 496 (2009). We thus employ a “common sense approach” not a “hypertechnical, rigid, and legalistic analysis” when reviewing probable cause determinations. … The standard is not calibrated to “deal with hard certainties, but with probabilities.” … Nor does it “demand any showing that such a belief be correct or more likely true than false.” ….