Strip search at jail was without justification and suppressed

A strip search at the jail that produced packages of cocaine from defendant’s buttocks crack was invalid because the officers could not articulate their justification for that search. King v. Commonwealth, 49 Va. App. 717, 644 S.E.2d 391 (2007):

Further, unlike Craddock, no evidence exists in this record to establish what led deputies to conduct the intrusive search at issue in this case. The Commonwealth argues that information in the probation violation report attached to the capias established that King was a person with a known history of drug abuse. Even if we were to assume that a defendant’s prior conviction of a drug offense was alone sufficient justification for a body cavity search, there is no evidence that the deputies who conducted the search had knowledge of the contents of the probation violation report. When the deputies searched King, the only information contained in the record regarding King and potential drug activity known by them was that King was seen leaving a house where two previous drug arrests had been made. This is hardly the “clear indication” that evidence was concealed in King’s body that is required for a body cavity search. See Hughes, 31 Va. App. at 460, 524 S.E.2d at 162 (holding that an informant’s tip that defendant was dealing drugs and kept them hidden in his underwear was insufficient to establish a clear indication that drugs were concealed in a body cavity).

Moreover, the record is devoid of any evidence of required exigent circumstances, such as “imminent medical harm to [King], or secretion of a weapon ….” Moss v. Commonwealth, 30 Va. App. 219, 226, 516 S.E.2d 246, 250 (1999). Therefore, the Commonwealth has failed to demonstrate any “special justification” for the search conducted in this case.

In summary, the search of King was undertaken without the authorization of a search warrant. It was, therefore, presumptively unreasonable, and the Commonwealth assumed the burden of establishing otherwise. From the record before us, we conclude that the Commonwealth failed to establish the facts that we have previously held are a necessary predicate to a warrantless visual body cavity search.

Defense counsel filed an Anders brief, and defendant raised suppression issue himself. The court found the search valid as a search incident or automobile exception because of probable cause to arrest. State v. Harrison, 2007 Ohio 2421, 2007 Ohio App. LEXIS 2237 (2d Dist. May 18, 2007).*

Defendant was not a guest, and he “had no standing to challenge the search of a house he neither resided in nor owned.” Dora v. State, 2007 Miss. App. LEXIS 331 (May 15, 2007).*