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OR: Defendant's suppression hearing cross-exam showed he believed he was free to leave

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant’s cross examination during the suppression hearing produced his testimony that he felt “100%” free to leave when the officer handed all the paperwork back to him, started to walk away, turned around and came back and started talking again. Defendant consented to a search of the car. Defendant conceded from the beginning that the stop was lawful. State v. Salvador, 2010 Ore. App. LEXIS 1136 (September 29, 2010). This is reminiscent of Kentucky v. Rawlings where the defendant admitted he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the drugs he stuck in a woman's purse. No matter how much one prepares a client for a suppression hearing, clients will often hang themselves on standing or the merits of the search. Here, it was necessary to put the client on to at least raise a fact question that he did not feel free to leave, and then he gave the wrong answer...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 03, 2010 (boomark / email).