IN: Officers had sufficient suspicion of contraband on the person for a booking strip search

Officers had the requisite degree of suspicion for a strip search at the jail for a misdemeanor. He had suspicions there was something amiss with defendant’s unusual small talk, but, coupled with the facts, added up. Reagan v. State, 2020 Ind. App. LEXIS 482 (Nov. 6, 2020) (decided under state constitution):

P19 Although Reagan largely focuses on the actual knowledge of the searching officer, Edwards directs that we also consider the circumstances of the arrest and the nature of the allegations underlying the arrest. See id.; see also Hardin, 148 N.E.2d at 943 (citing with approval a case that examined “the longer chain of interactions between the defendant and law enforcement around the time of the stop and search”). Here, Reagan was arrested for a substance-related offense—OVWI—not a low-level “traffic” offense, as Reagan asserts. The surrounding circumstances include (1) an odor of marijuana emanating from Reagan’s vehicle, (2) a suspected marijuana blunt visible inside the vehicle, and (3) Reagan’s admission to smoking marijuana before driving. As the criminal investigation progressed, Reagan displayed increasingly nervous behavior—to the point that Deputy Kingen was concerned for the child Reagan was holding. Reagan also displayed nervous, unusual behavior at the Arrestee Processing Center, which ultimately led Deputy Jimenez to believe something was amiss.

P20 We conclude that these circumstances—i.e., the circumstances of the arrest, the nature of the allegations, and Reagan’s ongoing nervous behavior—give rise to a relatively high degree of suspicion that Reagan was concealing contraband. However, even if constrained to consider only the knowledge of the searching officer, we would identify a high degree of suspicion because Deputy Jimenez knew the arrest was for OVWI and observed Reagan’s suspicious behavior.

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