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CA7: "Ditching" car and running away was an abandonment

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant ditched his car and ran, so it was abandoned. United States v. Vasquez, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 4973 (7th Cir. March 14, 2011)*: The search issue is a dead-bang loser. For one thing, the Bonneville was abandoned, and it's hard to see, under the circumstances here, how Vasquez could argue with a straight face that he maintained an expectation of privacy in it after he ditched it and bolted off on the run. On top of that, it's clear that the pursuing police had abundant probable cause to believe that drug money was in the car. What was the probable cause? Well, (1) Cruz told Diaz that Vasquez and Perez had the money with them; (2) no money was found during the searches of Vasquez and Perez; and (3) two drug-detection dogs indicated that there were narcotics in the passenger-side dashboard of the car...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 15, 2011 (boomark / email).