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DC: Screaming for help from the police in a high crime area not disorderly

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

An officer saw several people congregating in the Sursum Corda neighborhood of D.C. who the officer knew had priors, and he approached them. All left but T.L. whom the officer asked about drugs. He said he didn’t have any, and the officer asked about searching. He found a lot of cash on T.L. and took it telling him that he had to prove he earned it to get it back. T.L. shouted and called for help because he thought he was being “robbed” by the police officer, who, the court noted, gratuitously took his money. That brought people out of their homes. The officer then arrested T.L. for disorderly conduct and searched him incident to that finding crack. T.L.’s actions were not disorderly, and the search was invalid. Drug suppressed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 04, 2010 (boomark / email).