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Newsbrief:
NJ
Supreme
Court
Just
Says
No
to
Vehicle
Searches
Where
a
Former
Passenger
Had
Drugs
11/7/03
The fact that someone who
just left a car possessed drugs is not sufficient grounds for a warrantless
search of the automobile, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday.
In a unanimous decision upholding an appeals court ruling, the court threw
out charges against Floyd McDonald, Jr. of Paterson, who was arrested after
police searched his car subsequent to finding drugs on a man who had just
left the vehicle.
McDonald was approached by
police after they arrested his passenger, Larry Wilson of Paterson, with
bags of marijuana. McDonald produced a valid driver's license and
was not intoxicated, but police searched his car anyway and found 50 bags
of crack cocaine. The trail judge concluded that police were justified
in conducting a warrantless search.
The appeals court disagreed,
and McDonald was freed from prison pending Monday's ruling. Now,
the state Supreme Court has also agreed. "We reiterate that the warrantless
search in this case is presumed invalid and that the government bore the
burden of creating an evidentiary record to uphold its conduct," the court
said in its 7-0 decision, written by Justice Peter Verniero. (Ironically,
Verniero is the former New Jersey Attorney General who became embroiled
in the state's racial profiling scandal in 2002 over alleged misstatements
to the legislature.) "It is not enough to describe the quantity of
drugs, their location on defendant's person, and defendant's proximity
to the car," Verniero said. "The officers need to articulate more
fully why those facts provided the threshold level of suspicion required
to justify their search of the car itself."
See http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/supreme/a-49-02.pdf
to read the ruling online.
-- END --
|
Issue #310, 11/7/03
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BUSTED: Special Video Offer for DRCNet Members |
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Newsbrief: NJ Supreme Court Just Says No to Vehicle Searches Where a Former Passenger Had Drugs |
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