Auto Search

What is the name of your state? Missouri

Sorry, messed up first post**************

My son was driving home at 5:00 am from spending the night at a friends house. Police stopped him for a non-functioning headlamp. He was immediatley handcuffed and brought to the rear of his car. Second officer soon arrived. Both officers began searching the inside of his car including the trunk. When he told the officers to stop, that they did not have his permission to search his car, he said they laughed and told him that there was a new law and they could search his vehicle if they saw fit.

While nothing illegal was found in the car, was this legal?? If not, would this be something worth pursuing, or should he just roll over and take it?

Any advice would be appreciated.

I hope this is not where our country is headed.

[Son of Slam]

I assume you do not know the meaning of new law. It means that they can search the car as they see fit. Period.

[calatty]

What new law? Any new law has to comply with the Fourth Amendment. The police may not search an entire car for a traffic violation. See the United States Supreme Court case Knowles v. Iowa (1998) 525 U.S. 113. [url]http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/97-7597.ZS.html[/url]
He can bring a civil rights action against the police for violation of his civil rights.

[dequeendistress]

Calatty--

What about probable cause or plain view doctrine:

and don't forget about the clauses covering automobiles and their mobile tendencies...

To the poster: since you were not present, do you know if there was probable cause or other extenuating circumstance for these officers to search the vehicle.

And until the answer the queenie's question is answered, there can't be a relevant answer to the poster's question.

[dequeendistress]

and we wait...

[Son of Slam]

Originally posted by calatty
...He can bring a civil rights action against the police for violation of his civil rights.

His word and some luck may get a suit started, but unless the police were stupid, it will not fly.

johnnhoj--

If one were to assume that the facts you presented are true (despite my intuition), then the officers unconstitutionally violated the rights of your son by handcuffing him and searching his vehicle pursuant to the investigation of an equipment violation.

Please forgive the sarcasm, but law enforcement rarely requests a back-up unit for a burnt-out headlamp. Either your son has skipped a chapter in this story, or I think that you may have.

For the purposes of the rest of this posting, I am going to assume that your son was arrested for an offense, and that you left that part out.

If your son was legally arrested, then the officers had the right to search the vehicle including the trunk to inventory any valuables it may contain. This is so the cops don't get sued by your son for losing/stealing/selling any valuables that was in his car at the time of his arrest. This type of search is recognized in every state in the US.

Even if the officers searched your son's vehicle in violation of the 4th Amendment, the remedy is generally to supress any evidence found pursuant to that illegal search in any criminal matter based upon it. That is generally the extent of it.

If you are hoping for a big lawsuit under these circumstances, I would recommend a cheap lawyer; the more expensive ones will also tell you that you don't have a case.