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OH5: Inventory could include crushed cigarette pack

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Inventory search permitted officer looking in crushed up cigarette pack. State v. Davis, 2009 Ohio 1660, 2009 Ohio App. LEXIS 1370 (5th Dist. April 3, 2009). Consent to "look in" the trunk was consent to search. Davis v. State, 2009 Ga. App. LEXIS 417 (April 3, 2009). "Probable cause is a decidedly amorphous concept that invokes an unstructured analysis," and "'[a]rticulating precisely what *** "probable cause" mean[s] is not possible.' Ornelas v. United States (1996), 517 U.S. 690, 695, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911." Here, it cannot be said that the trial court was wrong in determining that there was PC. State v. Huber, 2009 Ohio 1636, 2009 Ohio App. LEXIS 1347 (2d Dist. April 3, 2009).* Defendant was stopped for, first, turning away from a police car, and then backing down a street which the court finds is "'Unprovoked flight upon seeing police officers'" (Wardlow), and there was reasonable suspicion based on that where attention was drawn to the defendant by a radio call...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 08, 2009 (boomark / email).