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LA: Furtive movement to glove compartment justified Long car "frisk"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Search of glove compartment of car after defendant's removal from it was justified as a protective weapons search under Long. When the officers came upon defendant parked in a high crime area, he was putting something in the glove compartment, apparently to get it out of the view of the officer. State v. Wilder, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 449 (5th Cir. March 25, 2008)* (Comment: Long was decided 25 years ago, and it surprisingly finds little use in the caselaw these days. It is far easier for the prosecution to argue that a protective weapons search was required under Long on reasonable suspicion than a search incident on probable cause.) Smell of marijuana in a common area of an apartment complex was sufficiently shown for probable cause purposes to be coming from one apartment to justify a search of that apartment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 30, 2008 (boomark / email).