IL: Search of the person before being placed in ambulance was unreasonable

Search of defendant’s person before he was placed in an ambulance at best could be for weapons. Removing a smoking pipe from his pocket was an unreasonable search. People v. Kowalski, 2011 IL App (2nd) 100237, 352 Ill. Dec. 582, 954 N.E.2d 442 (2011):

[P14] The State argues, as the trial court found, that this warrant exception should be extended to a situation where a citizen is to be transported in an ambulance. Even assuming that this exception may be properly extended in such a manner, we believe that the search conducted by Gaw exceeded the scope permitted under this exception. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Terry, a search for weapons without probable cause must, like any other search, be “strictly circumscribed by the exigencies which justify its initiation.” Terry, 392 U.S. at 25-26. Accordingly, if the purpose of searching a citizen prior to providing him with a courtesy transport in a squad car or transporting him in an ambulance is to ensure the safety of the transporting officers or paramedics, then such a search, like the protective pat-down search permitted by Terry, should be limited to “an intrusion reasonably designed to discover guns, knives, clubs, or other hidden instruments for the assault of the police officer” or paramedic. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 29. As previously discussed, the State did not present any evidence that indicated that Gaw initially limited his search of defendant to a pat-down search for weapons or that the pipe felt like a weapon or other contraband. Accordingly, the State failed to counter defendant’s prima facie case that the search conducted by Gaw was illegal.