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D.P.R.: The defense argument to suppress is "nonsense" and "stunningly irrational and baseless"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Actually from last summer, is the failed argument of the summer: From the carjacking capital of the United States, a claim that the carjacking was justified as their own extralegal drug investigation with probable cause, allegedly to steal drugs. United States v. Torres-Sobrado, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129616 (D. P.R. August 20, 2009): The arguments made by the defendants, first, that no property was unlawfully seized because the property in question consisted only of illegal substances and, second, that the defendants had probable cause to conduct the fateful traffic stop and therefore, presumably, that the resulting search and seizure were lawfully conducted is, quite simply, nonsense. Even if the property taken from the victim is property that is not constitutionally protected, and even if the movants were accompanied during the traffic stop by a "real" member of the Puerto Rico Police Department acting on a tip from a reliable source, the defendants' stop, detention, and search of Andrades were illegal according to the allegations in Count Six...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 26, 2010 (boomark / email).