Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

E.D.Pa.: Abandonment was equivocal, but search valid by third-party consent

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The government could not prove that defendant unequivocally intended to abandon his place because he might be coming back to it. However, the other person living there had apparent and actual authority to consent to the search and seizure. United States v. McKnight, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94353 (E.D. Pa. September 10, 2010)*: Paige testified he left the apartment with no specific intent to return. The Government, however, did not meet its burden to show by clear and unequivocal evidence that Paige abandoned the apartment and all his property therein. Although Paige did not return to the apartment while he was staying at friends' houses, and although his rent payments were significantly overdue, there is no evidence formal eviction proceedings had been commenced...continue to full post

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