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

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

OK: Direction to empty pockets on service of writ of execution for cash was a reasonable search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officers came to defendant’s bar with a writ of execution to levy on a judgment. It authorized seizure of cash on the premises or defendant’s person. When defendant was pulling cash from his pocket, a baggie of meth fell out. Officers called for a drug dog which alerted on defendant’s car. They got a search warrant and more was found. The search on the writ was legal because defendant had the opportunity to defend the civil case that led to its issuance. The search was reasonable. State v. Sittingdown, 2010 OK CR 22, 2010 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 22 (September 30, 2010): [*P13] Because a civil order or writ is court process, the resulting seizure’s constitutionality is subject to the “ultimate standard” of “reasonableness...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 07, 2010 (boomark / email).