No specific time delay between an arrest and search incident of a car makes it unreasonable. The question is whether the search incident was part of a continuous series of events. Here, the search was twenty minutes later and the car had been moved to another location for highway safety. [At this point, the search incident doctrine and automobile exception will blend together, and here the search was alternatively valid under the automobile exception.] United States v. Kila, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38002 (D.Haw. May 8, 2008):<\/p>\n
13. The court concludes that the search of the Toyota Celica was contemporaneous with Kila’s arrest and thus incident to the arrest. This case presents circumstances similar to those in McLaughlin<\/em> and Weaver<\/em>. There was no intervening event or pause in the decisionmaking process leading to the search of the Toyota Celica. The delay resulted from reasonable safety concerns. Unlike the officers in Ramos-Osequera<\/em>, the officers here did not decide to search Kila’s Toyota Celica only after driving the vehicle to the Federal Building. Rather, TFO Peralta decided at the scene of the arrest that the Toyota Celica would be searched. He instructed TFO Worthington to drive the vehicle to the Federal Building to ensure a safe search, away from freeway traffic. Kila’s arrest, the removal of the Toyota Celica from a location that posed safety concerns, and the search of the vehicle were all part of a continuous series of events similar to the events in McLaughlin<\/em>.<\/p>\n
14. The court is not persuaded by Kila’s arguments that a vehicle search could have been conducted safely at the location of the stop, or that the vehicle search should have been conducted near a closer highway exit rather than at the Federal Building. Kila was arrested at night on a highway with “medium” traffic conditions, in an area where cars tended to pick up speed. It was entirely reasonable to conduct the vehicle search at another location, especially because a vehicle search could reasonably require officers to open all doors and look under seats, leaving the officers physically vulnerable to highway traffic. In addition, it was not unreasonable to conduct the search at the Federal Building rather than to pull off at a nearby exit to conduct the search in an unknown area. As the court in Scott noted, a search is not considered remote from the arrest when the delay is caused by safety concerns. The search of the Toyota Celica was incident to Kila’s arrest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading