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Cal: Cell phone may be searched incident to arrest; disagreeing with Ohio

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

California holds that a cell phone text message folder can be seized incident to arrest, 90 minutes into the arrest finding “binding Supreme Court authority,” albeit cases from the '70's before cell phones were even imagined. The police arrested the defendant after listening to an ecstacy sale on a wire. The cell phone was removed from his person. At the police station, the officer manipulated the phone to find the text message folder which had incriminating messages. People v. Diaz, 2011 Cal. LEXIS 1 (January 3, 2011): Resolution of this issue depends principally on the high court’s decisions in Robinson, Edwards, and Chadwick. In Robinson, a police officer arrested the defendant for driving with a revoked operator’s permit...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 04, 2011 (boomark / email).