Officers reasonably mistaken on the facts that the person entering a 4Runner from a drug house was a particular wanted person still justified the stop. Then, furtive movements justified a protective weapons search. United States v. Black-McCormick, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172902 (W.D. Mo. November 19, 2014):
\n<\/p>\n
In this case, based on the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that the officers were reasonably mistaken when they concluded that the female entering the passenger compartment of the 4Runner was an individual with an outstanding warrant. As such, the officers were initially justified in conducting a traffic stop of the 4Runner. Compare United States v. Neemann 61 F.Supp.2d 944, 950-51 (D.Neb. 1999) (police officer’s belief that automobile passenger was person wanted for violating terms of pretrial release, while mistaken, was reasonable, where passenger was seen leaving house where wanted person was believed to reside and entering automobile, it was dark, passenger wore hat, and passenger bore resemblance to wanted person when wearing hat, and thus officer’s belief provided reasonable suspicion required to support investigatory stop of automobile).<\/p>\n
However, concluding that the initial stop of the 4Runner was justified under the Fourth Amendment is only the first inquiry. Not every proper Terry traffic stop justifies the warrantless search of the stopped vehicle. In this case, the government seeks to justify the search of the passenger compartment as a reasonable “self-protective” vehicle search, arguing that it was reasonable for the officers to search the interior of the passenger compartment of the 4Runner for purposes of officer safety. This argument presents a very slippery slope for Fourth Amendment analysis in that the argument advanced by the government would seemingly undermine the explicit limitations placed on two other exceptions to the warrant requirement \u2014 the “automobile exception” and the “search incident to an arrest.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Officers reasonably mistaken on the facts that the person entering a 4Runner from a drug house was a particular wanted person still justified the stop. Then, furtive movements justified a protective weapons search. United States v. Black-McCormick, 2014 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading