AL: Officer was lawfully in position for plain view of def’s computer screen

The trial court erred in suppressing the search here because the officer who did it was a law enforcement officer under state law able to do so. On the merits, the officer was in position to make a plain view of his computer screen, and defendant admits that its incriminating nature was immediately apparent. State v. Hunt, 2020 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 25 (Mar. 13, 2020).*

The officer’s stepping in front of the defendant and saying “I just want to make sure you don’t got no guns” was a potentially seizure, although the question was close. The individual would not feel free to leave. Except defendant didn’t submit to authority under Hodari D. “Veney’s conduct—continuing to walk away from Officer Torres—indicates that he did not acknowledge that he was subject to the officer’s authority. Accordingly, because Veney has failed to show that he submitted to Officer Torres’s statement, ‘No. I just want to make sure you don’t got no guns,’ the second prong of the Hodari D. test is not satisfied.” The bulge in defendant’s clothing was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Veney, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44596 (D.D.C. Mar. 13, 2020).