©2011 Jack Ryan, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com)2011 U.S. Supreme Court ~ Davis v. United States Evidence Seized in Incident to Arrest Automobile Searches before Rules were changed in Arizona v. Gant is not Subject to Exclusion In a decision which only impacts search incident to arrest of motor vehicles which occurred before the United States Supreme Court decided Arizona v. Gant [i] the UnitedStates Supreme Court examined whether evidence seized pre-Gant under the old rules should be excluded at trials which occurred post-Gant. [ii] In examining the facts of the case, the Court noted that the search at issue occurred [...]

©2011 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) 2011 U.S. Supreme Court Camreta v. Greene On May 26, 2011, the United States Supreme Court decided Camreta v. Greene et al., [i] and vacated a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which had effectively required child protective service officers to obtain warrants in order to interview victims of child abuse, absent parental consent.  The facts of Camreta are as follows: In February 2003, police arrested Nimrod Greene for suspected sexual abuse of a young boy unrelated to him. During the investigation of that offense, the boy's parents told police [...]

©2011 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) 2011 Arizona v. Fisher On May 19, 2011, the Supreme Court of Arizona decided Arizona v. Fisher [i], which serves as an excellent review of the law as it pertains to protective sweeps of residences by law enforcement officers.  The facts of Fisher, taken directly from the case are as follows: In May 2006, Mesa police responded to a call alleging an aggravated assault. The victim, who was bleeding from a cut on his head, told police he had been pistol-whipped by a man known as "Taz." The victim described Taz [...]

©2011 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) 2011 11th Circuit, United States v. Shepard In 1991, the United States Supreme Court decided California v. Hodari [i] which involved the issue of when a seizure of a person takes place.  In Hodari, officers entered a high-crime neighborhood in unmarked police cars.  When Hodari observed the police car approach, he fled on foot.  An officer wearing a jacket that identified him as a police officer gave chase on foot.  Just as the officer was about to catch him, Hodari threw a rock of suspected crack cocaine.  The officer tackled Hodari [...]

©2011 Shaun Santos, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) In a recent case United States v. Cuevas-Perez, 2011 WL 1585072 (C.A. 7 (Ill.)), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether the warrantless installation of a GPS device which allowed "real time" tracking of a suspect vehicle for approximately 60 hours while it traveled from Arizona to Illinois violated the Fourth Amendment. The Court concluded that there was simply no constitutionally relevant difference between devices which simply record and store information for later retrieval and GPS units which furnish real time data.  In fact, the Seventh Circuit indicated [...]

©2011 Brian S. Batterton, Attorney, PATC Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) United States v. Curlin, 7th Cir. 2011 Law enforcement officers, particularly deputies, are often called to execute Writs of Possession, civil court orders that evict tenants and place property back in the control of the rightful owner.  On April 25, 2011, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Curlin [i], a case which involved the admissibility of evidence discovered during an eviction. The facts of Curlin are as follows: On October 17, 2008, Curlin's landlord filed a small claims action against Curlin in Franklin Township, Indiana, seeking possession [...]