N.D.Okla.: Patdown for weapons that became an investigative search was unreasonable

Defendant concedes the basis for the stop but not the justification for a patdown. The court finds reasonable suspicion on the totality extreme (not ordinary) nervousness. But, the search was excessive, and the motion to suppress is granted. “The Court finds that police had reasonable suspicion to conduct a pat-down of defendant’s person, but the pat-down was excessive in scope and resulted in a violation of defendant’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from an illegal search. A pat-down is intended to be a limited search of a suspect’s outer clothing to identify and remove any weapons that could be used to harm police officers. Instead, Beal removed [a pouch] from defendant’s person that was obviously not a weapon, and without hesitation he unzipped the pouch as if he were performing a search incident to arrest or a probable cause search of defendant’s person.” United States v. Hernandez, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43096 (N.D. Okla. Mar. 12, 2020), reconsideration denied, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46872 (N.D. Okla. Mar. 18, 2020).

The anonymous 911 tip here provided electronic information of the caller, and the tip was quickly corroborated by the police as in [and even more than] Navarette. United States v. McCants, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 7980 (3d Cir. Mar. 12, 2020).*

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