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WI: SI permitted search of eyeglasses case found below driver's door after stop

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

An eyeglass case on the ground below the driver's door was subject to search incident under the circumstances. While a search incident is presumed unreasonable, the facts here showed an officer alone on the highway with two persons detained, and a potential weapon involved. The court sensitively analyzes the search incident rationale in detail on these facts. State v. Denk, 2008 WI 130, 2008 Wisc. LEXIS 1063 (December 30, 2008): [*P61] We determine that the warrantless search here was incident to the arrest and was supported by both of the historical rationales at the heart of that exception, namely the safety of the arresting officer and the need to discover and preserve evidence. In this situation, Office Hahn was outnumbered at a late night arrest involving two men and knew that narcotics were present...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 03, 2009 (boomark / email).