Police were investigating a rash of burglaries, and woke up a magistrate in the middle of the night to get an arrest warrant for defendant. Officers went to arrest him and others were seeking a search warrant. At his apartment, they found proceeds from the burglaries. The independent source doctrine was satisfied [as would be inevitable discovery because they sure had enough to get the search warrant and did]. Commonwealth v. Pearson, 2019 Mass. App. LEXIS 141 (Oct. 28, 2019).*
After a traffic stop, the officer developed reasonable suspicion for a field sobriety test. State v. Williams, 2019-Ohio-4414, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 4478 (5th Dist. Oct. 24, 2019).*
“Can a declined credit card for a $16.70 cab fare result in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action? One would think not. But here we are.” The cab driver called the police. Plaintiff offered to go into her apartment to get the money, and the officers entered with her. When she objected to their coming in, they arrested her. She states a Fourth Amendment claim because there was no probable cause at all to arrest her, and there is no qualified immunity. Watts v. City of Newport Beach, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 32276 (9th Cir. Oct. 28, 2019).
Defendant did not object below to random drug screening after his conviction for grossly negligent operation of a motor vehicle. Therefore, it won’t be reviewed for plain error. Nevertheless, the court strikes it from his conditions of probation as not related to the conviction. State v. Nash, 2019 VT 73, 2019 Vt. LEXIS 150 (Oct. 25, 2019).*
Posted inArrest or entry on arrest|Comments Off on CA9: Arresting ptf for objecting to police coming into her house while she got money to pay a cab driver stated 4A claim with no QI
Defendant’s avowed lack of connection to the car he borrowed and was driving was a lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Villa-Guillén, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185672 (D.P.R. Oct. 25, 2019)*: Continue reading →
Posted inReasonable expectation of privacy|Comments Off on D.P.R.: Def’s avowed lack of connection to the borrowed car he had was a lack of REP
There was nexus for the search warrant for defendant’s house where he was alleged to have left his house and driven directly to the scene of a controlled buy where he was delivering. People v. Teague, 2019 IL App (3d) 170017, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 853 (Oct. 24, 2019).
Police received a 911 domestic violence call, and the responding officer encountered defendant who matched the description of the alleged assailant within a minute of dispatch of the call. He was slurring his words. Defendant’s patdown was reasonable. State v. Lewis, 2019 Conn. LEXIS 296 (Oct. 29, 2019).*
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising a motion to suppress the contents of a bookbag found on the ground outside the house of another searched with a warrant. Defendant can’t show any reasonable expectation of privacy. Hodges v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185325 (S.D.Ga. Oct. 25, 2019).*
Plaintiff’s body cavity search for a baggie of drugs in her vagina was reasonable by exigent circumstances because of a legitimate fear that she could be harmed and overdose if the bag leaked. Carbone v. Salem, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 32080 (3d Cir. Oct. 22, 2019).
Plaintiff stated a claim for excessive force for being handcuffed so tightly that the nerves in her hands were permanently injured. The officer, however, gets qualified immunity because it wasn’t clearly established that the officer should have known if she didn’t complain at the time, which she didn’t. Cugini v. City of New York, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 32021 (2d Cir. Oct. 25, 2019).*
Defendant argues the state probation search agreement (“his probation officer”) rather than the statute’s provision that he was generally subject to search was not controlling. The court disagrees: The statute controls and it’s clear. The fact a law enforcement task force was involved does not make it unreasonable. United States v. Scott, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 32029 (4th Cir. Oct. 25, 2019).
Defendant’s post-conviction claim that the DNA swab warrant was executed at a courthouse holding cell instead of at the jail was effectively withdrawn by appellate counsel by conceding there was no evidence it was drawn at the wrong lockup. Stinson v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 594 (Oct. 25, 2019).*
Posted inProbation / Parole search|Comments Off on CA4: Probation search not unreasonable because a law enforcement task force was involved
Officers investigating stolen property found the thieves who said they traded the property to defendant for drugs. They went to his apartment in a quadplex to talk to him. Getting no answer at the front door, they walked on the grass to the back to try there, and saw what was likely the property. The trial court suppressed for a violation of the curtilage, and the court of appeals affirms. It is well developed in Georgia that even apartment holders can have a protected curtilage. State v. Newsome, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 595 (Oct. 25, 2019): Continue reading →
Posted inCurtilage|Comments Off on GA: Police approaching back door of apartment violated curtilage
A search warrant that authorized the search of “any vehicle on the premises” was not unparticular because it allowed searches of visitor’s cars too. Plenty of cases already hold that “any vehicle on the premises” is particular. Moreover, there was probable cause as to the vehicle and the automobile exception would permit searches of them. United States v. Shephard, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184161 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 24, 2019). Accord: United States v. Ward, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186086 (S.D. Miss. Oct. 28, 2019).
The officer watching what appeared to be a hand-to-hand transaction had at least reasonable suspicion for a stop. State v. Smith, 2019-Ohio-4373, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 4440 (2d Dist. Oct. 25, 2019).*
Posted inParticularity, Reasonable suspicion|Comments Off on N.D.Ohio & S.D.Miss.: SW including “any vehicle on the premises” is still particular
A police officer was entitled to qualified immunity because the right to be free from a warrantless manual body cavity search in the absence of exigent circumstances and a particularized suspicion that evidence of a crime was secreted inside the body cavity was not clearly established. Sanchez v. Bonacchi, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 31970 (2d Cir. Oct. 25, 2019).
“At the time that defendants investigated Wilkinson and obtained a search warrant, it was not clearly established for purposes of qualified immunity that it violated Wilkinson’s double jeopardy rights to prosecute him for perjury for allegedly testifying falsely in traffic court. See id. Based on then existing precedent, defendants were not ‘plainly incompetent’ to believe that Wilkinson’s acquittal of the speeding charge did not necessarily decide that Wilkinson was telling the truth when he denied being the driver of the speeding car. White v. Pauly, 137 S. Ct. 548, 551, 196 L. Ed. 2d 463 (2017) (citation omitted); ….” Wilkinson v. Magrann, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 31844 (9th Cir. Oct. 24, 2019).*
Posted inBody searches, Qualified immunity|Comments Off on CA2: Not clearly established for QI that a warrantless body cavity search required exigency and a particularized suspicion
The trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress where the officer ran the dog around the car within the time of the normal traffic stop. Therefore, the traffic stop was not illegally extended because the purpose of the traffic stop had yet to be fulfilled when the trooper made the decision to walk his dog around defendant’s car since the trooper had not completed writing the warning ticket. Also, the entire process of the traffic stop took a little over 16 minutes, which usually takes 10-20 minutes to complete. State v. Elliot, 2019-Ohio-4411, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 4439 (5th Dist. Oct. 23, 2019).
Defendant was in a disabled vehicle that the officer stopped to help. When the officer saw a gun in the car, he told defendant to put his hands on the car so he could retrieve it. That was the stop. The strong odor of marijuana coming from defendant and his car provided probable cause. United States v. Scriven, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184156 (E.D. Va. Oct. 23, 2019).*
Posted inDog sniff, Reasonable suspicion, Seizure|Comments Off on OH5: It was reasonable to run the dog around a car in a traffic stop where it happened without extending the stop during waiting time
A lady found a drone in her yard, and she was already concerned about people flying drones over her house. A computer memory card was in the drone. She looked at it, and called the police and turned it over. The police also looked at the memory card and identified defendant as the operator of the drone from its video, and the video showed defendant and another handling drugs. A search warrant was obtained a couple of days later for defendant’s property. It was not constitutionally stale—it was half the time of other rejected staleness claims. Byers v. State, 2019 Ind. App. LEXIS 463 (Oct. 24, 2019).*
Defendant’s CSLI claim isn’t decided in this limited appeal, but he can relitigate it on remand. Spera v. State, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 16025 (Fla. 2d DCA Oct. 23, 2019).*
“Because no Miranda violation occurred, the police permissibly relied on Terui’s incriminating statements in obtaining the search warrant for his home. Even if a Miranda violation had occurred, however, suppression of the evidence found pursuant to the warrant would not be appropriate. Physical evidence discovered as the fruit of unwarned statements may be suppressed only if the statements were made involuntarily, in violation of the Due Process Clause. United States v. Patane, …; Oregon v. Elstad, … The district court correctly found no evidence to support a finding of involuntariness. Terui alleged no physical or psychological coercion, and there was no evidence suggesting that Terui’s will was overborne. Thus, even if Terui had established a Miranda violation, he would not have been entitled to suppression of the evidence discovered pursuant to the search warrant.” United States v. Terui, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 31657 (9th Cir. Oct. 23, 2019).*
Posted inInevitable discovery|Comments Off on CA9: Even if there was a Miranda violation, SW still valid
The government proved inevitable discovery. “The record makes clear that before Alston made any involuntary admissions, Captain Aleem believed that Alston possessed a gun, had the probable cause necessary to search the car, and intended to find the gun. The record thus establishes that Captain Aleem not only could have searched the car but also would have done so. Accordingly, the district court did not err in admitting the gun.” United States v. Alston, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 31814 (4th Cir. Oct. 24, 2019).
Nothing seized in this case came from defendant—it came from the ground around him, and he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the things on the ground. United States v. Johnson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183928 (D. Nev. Oct. 24, 2019).*
State DHS case workers are subject to the Fourth Amendment, and their warrantless entry into defendant’s home was unreasonable. People v. Dyer, 2019 COA 161, 2019 Colo. App. LEXIS 1588 (Oct. 24, 2019).
Probable cause for search of a car helped lead to probable cause for a search warrant for a house for drugs. Then defendant’s car came to the house, and it appeared evidence left the house in the car, and that was probable cause for stop and search of the car. United States v. Leon, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183302 (W.D. Tex. Oct. 22, 2019).*
The officers had reasonable suspicion for stopping defendant for suspicion of armed robbery despite differences in how he was dressed and his mode of transportation. People v. Turman, 2019 IL App (4th) 170815, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 847 (Oct. 23, 2019).*
When defendant was arrested on an arrest warrant, it was constitutionally required that officers have the warrant in hand at the time of the arrest. Rule 4 only requires the warrant be shown as soon as practical. Defendant was arrested on a child support warrant. The search of his bag wasn’t valid as a search incident, but it was as inventory. United States v. Stephens, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183440 (W.D. Va. Oct. 23, 2019).
Defendant had standing to contest the government’s acquiring geolocation information from a cell phone that defendant was using, claiming it was his phone. The tracking order for him established probable cause he was involved in a drug conspiracy. United States v. Cardona, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183146 (D. Mass. Oct. 23, 2019).*
Defendant’s claim that defense counsel was ineffective in not better challenging the search warrant is moot because nothing from the search was admitted at trial. Williams v. State, 2019 Ark. 289, 2019 Ark. LEXIS 294 (Oct. 24, 2019).*
Defendant barely raised the state constitutional claim below and why it should be different than the Fourth Amendment claim and in her briefing, but the issue was not decided below so it wasn’t preserved for review. State v. Lasley-Eakins, 2019 Iowa App. LEXIS 986 (Oct. 23, 2019).
The search warrant was invalid with respect to cigarettes because the warrant did not specifically list cigarettes, nor did they fall within the language of the warrant. The warrant did not satisfy the constitutional requirements for particularity. The search, however, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because of other overwhelming evidence. Jemison v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 475, 2019 Ark. App. LEXIS 505 (Oct. 23, 2019).*
Defendant’s guilty plea waived his investigatory stop claim. United States v. Halliburton, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 31670 (7th Cir. Oct. 23, 2019).*
Posted inParticularity, State constitution|Comments Off on IA: Failure to get ruling on state constitutional claim was waiver
The small town police department that obtained the search warrant did not have its own entry team for safety. Using officers from other county and state agencies to assist didn’t violate the warrant. People v. Ward, 2019 NY Slip Op 07624, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7578 (2d Dept. Oct. 23, 2019).
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment claim via a 2254 isn’t cognizable. Byrd v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183156 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 23, 2019).*
Defendant doesn’t show how if defense counsel was better prepared for the suppression hearing the result would be different. Brewer v. State, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 678 (Oct. 23, 2019).*
Posted inIneffective assistance, Warrant execution|Comments Off on NY2: Where SW was issued to a small town PD, using officers from other agencies to assist in raid doesn’t violate 4A
A small amount of marijuana in defendant’s passenger’s purse wasn’t probable cause to search the entire car. Lowe v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 588 (Oct. 23, 2019).
A combat veteran with perceived grievances against the police and a prior felony conviction made Facebook posts that strongly suggested he would confront the police with weapons and that he had weapons. The Facebook post included a picture indoors of what was apparently a residence. Based on that, they got a search warrant for his house and found guns. “While the Court is mindful that a person’s residence is a place of sanctity under Fourth Amendment jurisprudence—because people have an unparalleled expectation of privacy in their homes, Payton v. New York, …—Corporal Salyer’s assertions, in their totality and from a common-sense perspective, establish probable cause for the search of Mr. Dunford’s residence and vehicle.” United States v. Dunford, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183132 (E.D. Tenn. Oct. 23, 2019).*
Posted inProbable cause|Comments Off on GA: Passenger’s small quantity of MJ in purse isn’t PC for car
The frisk of defendant did not violate the Fourth Amendment, so the trial court did not err by denying defendant’s motion to suppress the firearm. The officer encountered defendant after an unknown caller placed two 911 calls, defendant matched the physical description of the suspect at the location the caller had provided within minutes of the second call, and the officer saw defendant walking in a manner that suggested that he was concealing a firearm which justified the pat down. People v. Carter, 2019 IL App (1st) 170803, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 848 (Oct. 22, 2019).
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment appeal dismissed for lack of a properly presented certified question. State v. Johnson, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 685 (Oct. 23, 2019).*
Posted inInformant hearsay, Stop and frisk|Comments Off on IL: Two anonymous calls of man with a gun resulted in finding only def in the area who walked like he was holding
"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't." —Me
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well." –Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others)
“I am still learning.” —Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)).
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848)
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced." —Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984).
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence." —Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961).
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987).
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today." — Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting).
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property." —Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765)
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment." —United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting)
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth." —Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring).
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable." —Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987)
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected." —Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967)
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” —United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.” —United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989)
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need." —Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969)
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp]
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.” – John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime." —Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
