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MO: When officer discovered defendant was not the one named in a tip, defendant should have been released

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was stopped on a tip, but he was doing nothing wrong. The officer finally determined that defendant was not the person named in the tip, but it was continued essentially because of defendant’s prior arrests. The officer should then have let defendant go, but he instead kept checking an found an outstanding minor warrant that he took the defendant in for. Defendant let drugs in the police car, and that got him charged. The officer should have let defendant go when it was discovered he wasn’t the one described in the tip, and the arrest was invalid. State v. Grayson, 2011 Mo. LEXIS 78 (March 29, 2011).* Defendant’s argument that a federal search warrant violated state law was irrelevant. The court does not have to look to whether there was a substantial basis for finding probable cause if the warrant was issued in good faith, but here there was probable cause...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 01, 2011 (boomark / email).