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M.D.Fla.: SW for pharmacy in steroid investigation was a "general warrant"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Search warrant for a pharmacy for all its records in a steroid prescribing case, where there was no link to the pharmacy and the prescribing doctors, was a general warrant for every piece of paper in the pharmacy with no way to limit the search to an offense. One defendant filed a summary judgment motion, and he lost. Signature Pharmarcy v. Soares, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57714 (M.D. Fla. June 10, 2010): A lengthy laundry list of specific items unconnected--in any way--to an alleged crime is no better than a warrant for “all evidence” of an alleged crime. Absent at least some nexus between the alleged crime and the items to be seized, an officer can simply “rummage and seize at will.” Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 378 (1993) (internal citations and quotations omitted)...continue to full post

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