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Abandonment on seeing the police was not caused by a stop that had not yet occurred

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant's abandoning a bag when he saw the police was a voluntary abandonment not caused by the police. The stop had not yet occurred, so it couldn't cause it. United States v. Tuua, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48054 (D. Haw. June 19, 2008): It is undisputed that Tuua tossed his black bag into the stream and maintained no control over the bag. The court concludes that Tuua abandoned the bag and therefore lacks standing to challenge its search. In United States v. Mendia, 731 F.2d 1412 (9th Cir. 1984), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's conclusion that the defendant had "abandoned his reasonable expectations of privacy in the heroin by turning it over to [another individual] and making no effort to follow [that individual] after [he] drove away with the heroin in his trunk...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).