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E.D.Pa.: Search incident of a backpack dropped during handcuffing of arrestee was invalid

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was stopped running from the scene of a reported robbery, and he matched the description. When he was finally stopped and hooked up, he had dropped his backpack. The police picked up the backpack and searched it, and no exception to the warrant requirement applied. Defendant was handcuffed and unable to reach in it. The government suggested inventory but did not prove anything about a policy. Inevitable discovery was speculative. United States v. Bennett, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35755 (E.D. Pa. April 8, 2010).* Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense and having heavily tinted windows. During the stop, defendant refused consent, and the officer got the drug dog out to sniff the car, and it alerted. This continuation of the stop was with reasonable suspicion based on observations of the officer of the occupants...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).