Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

Consent to "look for drugs" permitted a dog sniff

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Consent to "look for drugs" permitted a dog sniff. United States v. Vargas-Miranda, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46747 (D. Neb. June 3, 2008): Finally, applying Eighth Circuit precedent and realizing that no damage was done to the car and none of the defendants made a contemporaneous objection to the manner of the officer's examination, a search of a vehicle that took about 34 minutes from the time of the consent to the finding of the package of heroin (Ex. 1 at approximately 2:40 to approximately 36:38) did not exceed the consent to "look" for drugs even though the deputy sheriff used a dog to sniff for contraband, removed (and replaced) a few screws that appeared to be out of the ordinary, and removed a plastic piece over the center radio console after observing that the glove compartment was missing a rivet...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).