D.Kan.: One can’t pull in driveway to avoid traffic stop and prevent it by arguing curtilage

A person can’t pull into a private driveway and insulate him or herself from an officer investigating a traffic offense. Here, the officer was going to just issue a warning but saw drugs in plain view in the car in the driveway. “Accepting Ockert’s argument would mean that a driver being stopped by the police could merely pull into any private driveway to avoid a potential search of his or her vehicle.” United States v. Ockert, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37092 (D.Kan. Mar. 2, 2022).

The officer gets qualified immunity for shooting plaintiff’s decedent who was wielding a sword, advanced on the officers, and ignored repeated commands to drop it. Lennen v. City of Casper, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 5513 (10th Cir. Mar. 2, 2022).*

“Contrary to Defendant’s assertions, the information contained in the affidavit was not stale where the affidavit provided that the affiant had downloaded child pornography files in November 2018, and the search was being sought in January 2019.” United States v. Thomas, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36977 (M.D.Fla. Mar. 2, 2022).*

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