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E.D.Pa.: Being overnight guest not required to have standing; defendant had standing in girlfriend's apartment even though he was married to someone else

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant had standing in the residence of his girlfriend even though he was married to somebody else and he was not an overnight guest; he had a key and he paid her bills. At the suppression hearing, she “testified to the intimate nature of her relationship with Defendant Watson, including the frequency of his visits and the typical duration of his stay with her.” United States v. Watson, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44777 (E.D. Pa. May 6, 2010). The Court of Appeals held that the complete search of defendant’s car’s passenger compartment was valid under the search incident doctrine. After that, Gant was decided, and the search incident rationale for a complete passenger compartment search as a matter of course was invalid...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 11, 2010 (boomark / email).