{"id":3226,"date":"2009-08-27T07:15:18","date_gmt":"2009-07-05T09:13:09","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-05T09:13:09","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=3226","title":{"rendered":"KY: Search was justified by automobile exception, so Gant<\/em> inapplicable"},"content":{"rendered":"

The officer had probable cause to believe that defendant possessed crack when he was arrested after he got out of his car, so the car was subject to search under the automobile exception, and Gant<\/a> had no application. McCloud v. Commonwealth<\/a>, 286 S.W.3d 780 (Ky. 2009).*<\/p>\n

Defendant stopped in the middle of the road, so the officer could approach him and ask questions, which led to asking about whether there were drugs in the car, and defendant admitted there were. United States v. Williams, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55450 (E.D. Mich. June 30, 2009)*:<\/p>\n

Here, Officer Watson approached a vehicle that was improperly parked in the middle of the road and asked the driver for identification. Officer Watson then asked Defendant if he had any marijuana in the vehicle with him and Defendant responded affirmatively. Officer Watson did not engage in any overbearing or coercive activity in making these requests and there is no evidence suggesting that Officer Watson conveyed a message that compliance with his requests was required. To the contrary, the evidence shows that Officer Watson gave no indication that Defendant was not free to leave and to refuse to respond to questioning. For example, Officer Watson did not ask Defendant to exit his vehicle and did not ask Defendant to pull his vehicle to the side of the road. Although Defendant’s vehicle was running when Officer Watson talked to Defendant, Officer Watson did not ask Defendant to turn the vehicle off.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The search warrant permitted a search of pants pockets (aside from the fact that defendant disclaimed this issue in the trial court and then raised it on appeal). State v. Thompson<\/a>, 2009 Ohio 3193, 2009 Ohio App. LEXIS 2746 (6th Dist. June 30, 2009):<\/p>\n

[*P15] A pants pocket is a logical place for a cell phone or a pocket knife to be kept. After all what better place to find a pocket knife then in one’s pocket? Stated differently, the officer was not searching for an elephant in a matchbox. Moreover, the officer who conducted the search testified that he was a 30 year veteran of the force who had previously found crack cocaine hundreds of times. According to the officer, when he felt the plastic baggie with what felt like rocks inside, he concluded based on his experience that the object was crack cocaine. This is sufficient testimony for the trial court to properly find that the crack was immediately apparent. See State v. Johnson, 2d Dist. No. 21361, 2006 Ohio 6311, P 20. Therefore, the search was within the scope of the warrant and the nature of the object found was immediately apparent to the officer conducting the search.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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