Seattle Criminal Attorney | Another Bad Search Case
Ever since the Supreme Court of the United States issued Gant v Arizona, recognizing that search incident to arrest can only happen is specific circumstances, namely when the officer fears for his safety or expects evidence of the crime arrested for might be lost or destroyed, citizens of the State of Washington have been exonerated for having their rights violated. As a Seattle criminal attorney I love this.
This new case is much like the others. Entitled State v. Valdez, it is a case where a guy was pulled over and found to have had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. After the cop placed the guy in handcuffs and put him in the patrol car, the officer searches the vehicle, in his mind, incident to the arrest. As you might expect, a search of the vehicle turns up drugs. The trial court doesn’t throw out the evidence, and the guy is convicted.
As with many of the other cases discussed here at the Seattle Criminal Attorney News blog, once the case got in front of some judges who were familiar with the new ruling (it is possible this case was originally decided before the Gant decision came down), they decided favorably for the defendant and dismissed the charges for lack of evidence.
This case is important from a Seattle criminal attorney’s perspective because it again helps to delineate a bright line rule for the cops to follow in the future. If you are arresting someone for a warrant violation and put him in the patrol car, you don’t get to go search the vehicle to see what else you can find. In the end this means the cops will rarely get to search a car for something when someone is arrested. And it also means you will need to be even more vigilant in refusing to allow cops to search your car when they ask.
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