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N.D.Ga.: Search incident of cell phone permitted because it could be remotely locked, but defendant consented [some] too

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Because a cell phone can be remotely locked [we all know that an iPhone4 can be remotely wiped clean], a search incident of this cell phone was proper. Even so, the defendant consented to the officer looking at the phone to retrieve a number for him, and the officer kept looking. [Really a good plain view?] United States v. Rodriguez-Gomez, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138369 (N.D. Ga. November 15, 2010): There is no Eleventh Circuit authority directly on point. The holding in Park is the minority position among cases that have considered whether cell phones may be searched incident to a lawful arrest but without a search warrant. The majority of cases, however, “trend heavily in favor of finding that the search incident to arrest or exigent circumstances exceptions apply to searches of the contents of cell phones...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 06, 2011 (boomark / email).