NJ: Chambers v. Maroney rejected under N.J. Constitution

Exigency for an automobile only applies to its seizure, not its search. Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42, 51-52 (1970), rejected under the NJ Constitution. State v. Minitee, 415 N.J. Super. 475 (2010). Lexis overview:

Defendants’ conviction arose from a series of armed robberies of massage parlors. The appeal challenged the warrantless search of a vehicle that served as the alleged getaway car. The court held that one defendant, who was an occupant of the vehicle at issue, had standing to challenge the propriety of the search because he had a participatory interest in the vehicle where the items seized by police were found as a result of having been an occupant. The court held that the warrantless search of the motor vehicle was constitutionally impermissible because the vehicle had been impounded and, once impounded, the police were required to obtain a search warrant since no exigent circumstances existed. In its opinion, the court harmonized the seemingly inconsistent holdings in State v. Martin, 87 N.J. 561 (1981) and State v. Pena-Flores, 198 N.J. 6 (2009), by finding that the exigent circumstances that existed at the scene only permitted the police to seize the vehicle. The court also construed a United States Supreme Court’s opinion, permitting warrantless searches of vehicles impounded by the police, to constitute binding authority only under the Fourth Amendment, U.S. Const. amend. IV.

Nexus shown to defendant’s house where there was no other place that the defendant could have been keeping the drugs he was repeatedly selling the CI. Grant of suppression reversed. Commonwealth v. Young, 77 Mass. App. Ct. 381, 931 N.E.2d 494 (2010):

In this search and seizure drug case, we are faced with the knotty issue of nexus. Here, a confidential informant (CI) repeatedly 1 purchased drugs (once by way of a controlled buy) from the defendant, Sammy Young, always within walking distance of the defendant’s apartment. It is difficult to discern, on this record, where else other than his apartment the drugs that the drug dealer peddled could have been stored. As such, we reverse the allowance of his motion to suppress.