Jones v. Garcia and Miller, No. 08-1969, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 21801 (6th Cir. Unpub Decided September 29, 2009) The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided a case that illustrates that Officers need to be mindful of pre-existing injuries on suspects once the suspect is under control of the officers.i  The incident at issue took place on April 14, 2004, at approximately 0200 hours, when police officers observed Jones breaking into and stealing from parked cars.  When Jones saw the police, he fled on foot.  He eventually stopped and obeyed the officer’s commands to lay face down on the ground.  The [...]

United States v. Juan Pineda-Moreno, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 625 (9th Cir. Decided January 11, 2010) On January 11, 2010, in the United States v. Pineda-Morenoi, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the warrantless use of a GPS tracking device that was affixed to a suspect’s vehicle while the vehicle was parked in the suspect’s driveway.  The facts of Pineda-Moreno, taken directly from the case, are as follows: On May 28, 2007, a Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") special agent noticed a group of men purchasing  a large quantity of fertilizer from a Home Depot. Recognizing the fertilizer as a [...]

SEE ALSO: Analysis based on 9th Circuit in the LLRMI Legal Question Archives Can simply pointing a gun at persons located at the scene of a search warrant be considered excessive force?  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals had to answer that very question in Baird v. Renbarger .  In this case, an officer with the Shelbyville Police Department was dispatched to Baird’s automobile shop to conduct a VIN verification on a vehicle owned by Baird.  The officer verified the VIN, although he believed it had been altered. When the officer returned to the police station, he obtained a search warrant for the vehicle [...]

United States v. Mann, No. 08-3041, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 1264 (7th Cir. Decided January 20, 2010) When executing search warrants, police are restricted to searching only areas in which the listed object of the search could be found or concealed.  This is said to be the “scope” of the search warrant.  For example, if an officer was executing a search warrant for a piano located in a house, the officer could only look places where a piano could be concealed.  Thus, if the officer looked into a jewelry box, he would be exceeding the scope of the search warrant, and any [...]

Note (December 2009): This case may be appealed and at this point is applicable law in jurisdictions covered by the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Note (June 2010) - This case has been updated, Click Here to View In a case decided December 28, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that TASER™ is an intermediate weapon and as such requires a strong government interest before TASER™  or any electronic device can be deployed.  This strong government interest as defined by the opinion is that the suspect poses an immediate threat to the officer or some other [...]

“Emergency Aid Exception” “Officers do not need ironclad proof of ‘a likely serious, life-threatening’ ’injury to invoke the emergency aid exception.” In a decision this week [2009] the United States Supreme Court further clarified law enforcement’s entry into a home based on a belief that a person was in danger to themselves or others within the home.i  The Court outlined the facts in Fisher as follows: “Police officers responded to a complaint of a disturbance near Allen Road in Brownstown, Michigan. * Officer Christopher Goolsby later testified that, as he and his partner approached the area, a couple directed them to a residence [...]