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E.D.Tenn.: While search of suitcase in trunk was invalid as SI, it would inevitably be valid as inventory

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

While the trunk of defendant’s rental car could not be search incident to arrest, inevitable discovery saved this search as an inventory. It could have been done as an inventory, and it appeared to be investigatory, but that’s not enough for inevitable discovery. United States v. Thompson-Bey, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67181 (E.D. Tenn. January 12, 2010)*: Even if the officers could properly search the passenger compartment of the car for evidence relating to the Defendant’s arrest on drug charges, they could not search the trunk of the car pursuant to the search incident to arrest exception. The line of cases governing the search incident to arrest exception, beginning with Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752 (1969), permit officers to “search incident to arrest only the space within an arrestee’s ‘immediate control,’ meaning ‘the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 09, 2010 (boomark / email).