MN: A “wardrobe assist” of pulling up saggy pants was not a search; it led to feeling the weight of a gun

Pulling up a defendant’s saggy pants that came down to his knees when he assumed the position outside his car [either because he wore them that way or because of the gun in his pocket weighing them down] was a “wardrobe assist” and not a search. State v. Wiggins, 788 N.W.2d 509 (Minn. App. 2010):

This case requires us to determine the constitutionality of a novel police procedure which, as far as we can tell, has never been reviewed on appeal by this court or any other. An officer investigating a suspected drug deal directed appellant Frank Wiggins from a car, ordered him to raise his hands high overhead, and then discovered a handgun in his pocket when she hoisted up his sagging pants that had dropped to hang around his knees. Wiggins appeals from his conviction of possession of a firearm by an ineligible person. We must decide whether the unique wardrobe assist was a search subject to constitutional regulation and, if not, whether it was the kind of seizure-related contact otherwise prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. Because we hold that the officer’s tactic was neither a search nor an unreasonable touching during a lawful investigative detention, we affirm.