Despite defendant having some cognitive difficulties, the court concludes his lies to the officer before consenting still supported consent. The ability to lie shows knowledge. United States v. Lumbert, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201199 (D. Minn. Aug. 13, 2025):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
But the voluntariness of a person’s consent to search does not hinge on his ability to understand the Fourth Amendment or a document such as a Consent to Search Form. Consent can be voluntary even when the person does not know that he has a right to refuse, see Schneckloth, 412 U.S. at 248, or that giving consent is against his interest, see United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 559 (1980) (distinguishing between voluntariness and whether a person recognizes that giving consent may be against his interest). Rather, given the subjective nature of the inquiry, these factors simply weigh in favor of finding involuntariness because they suggest the person is “susceptible to having his will overborne,” Wilson v. Lawrence County, 260 F.3d 946, 952 (8th Cir. 2001), and his consent is more likely the “product of duress or coercion, express or implied,” United States v. Watters, 572 F.3d 479, 483 (8th Cir. 2009).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Lumbert’s significant cognitive disabilities make this case a close call, but ultimately, the Court finds Mr. Lumbert’s own conduct demonstrates his consent was voluntary. When law enforcement officers ask a question, it is generally understood that they want a truthful answer. It follows that untruthful answers may constitute an attempt to undermine law enforcement and suggest the liar is exercising his own will. See Hall, 969 F.2d at 1108 (concluding defendant with low IQ, minimal education, and psychological problems voluntarily consented based on her ability to lie about the location of her bus ticket so that she could avoid opening her bag where drugs were hidden); see also United States v. Turner, 157 F.3d 552, 555 (8th Cir. 1998) (concluding intoxicated defendant with low IQ and mental illness voluntarily waived Miranda rights based on his ability to lie about his name and whether he consumed alcohol).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite defendant having some cognitive difficulties, the court concludes his lies to the officer before consenting still supported consent. The ability to lie shows knowledge. United States v. Lumbert, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201199 (D. Minn. Aug. 13, 2025):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62118,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62106\/revisions\/62118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}