W.D.Ky.: Presence of a passenger doesn’t alter analysis of abandonment of a vehicle

Defendant’s flight from an automobile is a waiver of his reasonable expectation of privacy. The fact a passenger was left behind doesn’t make it not abandonment as to him. United States v. Howard, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140670 (W.D. Ky. June 29, 2022), adopted, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137776 (W.D.Ky. Aug. 3, 2022):

Howard argues that the presence of his wife and child in the vehicle militates against a finding of abandonment (DN 41, p. 16). However, the fact that another person remains in the car does not impede a finding of abandonment. In United States v. Gibbs, No. 1:17-CR-207-CAP-CMS, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187572 (N.D. Ga. Oct. 9, 2018), adopted by 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204505, at *13-15 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 4, 2018), the Court found that where the driver of the vehicle fled, leaving the passenger/owner behind, the driver nonetheless surrendered his own expectation of privacy, and only the passenger/owner retained the expectation. Id. at *28-29. Howard’s argument calls upon the Court to find that, because he left his wife and child (whom he had just subjected to great risk of physical harm) in the car along with some personal property, he did not mean to abandon the vehicle. But that is exactly what he did – he ran and hid in an effort to avoid apprehension, leaving his wife and child in a disabled vehicle resting on the interstate right of way to deal with the investigating officers. Nothing about these circumstances would indicate to those officers that Howard had not abandoned the vehicle. Having found that the Defendant lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the automobile at the time of the search, the remaining issues argued by the parties are moot.