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CT: Defendant volunteered officer could "check" car, and this was an invitation to search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant’s invitation to “check” the car (“Morgan then asked whether the defendant had anything ‘illegal’ in the Altima. The defendant replied that all he had in the car was some beer on the floor by the passenger seat, and told Morgan that he could ‘go ahead and check. You can check if you want.’”) was a consent to search. Also, two questions did not unduly prolong the stop in this case. The court also [fell for the trap and] applied Meuhler v. Mena to a traffic stop to justify the questions, rejecting other state’s cases. There were only two questions, and they were not unreasonable [anyway]. State v. Jenkins, 298 Conn. 209, 2010 Conn. LEXIS 304 (September 7, 2010) [with two dissents here and here] (revg State v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 09, 2010 (boomark / email).