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

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

CA5: Alleged CI was really a victim so a lower threshold applies

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant did not show a sufficient issue of fact to get a suppression hearing. The parties offered their versions of events, and defendant's version was more a challenge to the scope of Belton. Caller ID identified the caller, and he claimed to be a crime victim, not a CI, so a lower standard of justification is applied to him. Here it was sufficient. United States v. Casper, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 15273 (5th Cir. July 18, 2008): We have agreed with other circuits that a citizen reporting a crime is more reliable, because such citizens are exposed to criminal liability for false complaints. United States v. Basey, 816 F.2d 980, 988-89 (5th Cir. 1987). Reliability is the central concern. Thus, in Basey the tipster was reliable because the deputies conducting the Terry stop knew the citizen informant...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 21, 2008 (boomark / email).