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TN: PC of personal use of marijuana no justification for computer search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

While officers had probable cause to believe that defendant had small quantities of marijuana for personal use, they lacked sufficient evidence of trafficking to get the search warrant for defendant’s computer. Child pornography was found on the computer. Tennessee has not adopted the good faith exception. State v. Bearden, 2010 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 106 (February 11, 2010). A flyover of defendant’s property apparently did not produce a view of marijuana growing, so the officers entered defendant’s curtilage and found marijuana plants growing in buckets. Then they attempted a knock-and-talk, but defendant was not home, and they called him twice trying to locate him to get consent. The consent obtained was not sufficiently attenuated from the illegal entry, and the search is suppressed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 14, 2010 (boomark / email).