by Anthony Accurso
Field test kits are touted as an easy way for law enforcement to determine if an unknown substance is in fact a narcotic. Millions are used each year by police during traffic stops, so they are commonly referred to as “roadside drug tests.” But revelations about the accuracy (or lack thereof) of these tests have called into question their usefulness for law enforcement purposes, causing a push to reform their role in prosecutions and elsewhere.
On the last day of 2015, Dasha Fincher was arrested in Monroe County, Georgia, during a traffic stop. Fincher was a passenger in the vehicle, and officers found an unknown substance attributed to her during a search. Deputies used a roadside drug test kit which indicated the substance contained methamphetamines. She would spend the next three months in jail on a $1 million bond because of the suspicion that she was a drug trafficker, largely based on the roadside test.
A subsequent lab test would reveal the substance was actually cotton candy. Though there were several reasons why the system failed Fincher, much of her trouble stemmed from the field test kit which misidentified a harmless substance as …
by Anthony W Accurso
In resolving a split among the state Courts of Appeal, the Supreme Court of California held that, unlike an outstanding arrest warrant, a condition of a suspect’s parole allowing for warrantless and suspicionless searches does not dissipate the taint of an unlawful detention and that any evidence obtained as a result of the subsequent search must be suppressed.
Officer Matthew Croucher of the San Jose Police Department responded to a report of a possible vehicle burglary in a business parking lot on an evening in January 2017. A security guard on the premises “told him she had seen two suspicious individuals on bikes shining flashlights into parked cars.”
After finding nothing suspicious in the commercial lot, Croucher then drove through an adjacent lot. He noticed one of the vehicles was occupied by Duvanh Anthony McWilliams, who “did not appear to be sleeping, just hanging out.”
Croucher called for backup, then approached the vehicle, and instructed McWilliams to exit, ostensibly for “safety reasons.” A records check showed McWilliams was “on active and searchable [California Department of Corrections] parole.” Croucher then conducted a search of McWilliams and the vehicle, “from which he seized …
by Anthony Accurso
Bitcoin is rapidly changing the way we function as individuals in a global and interconnected economy. Even though any individual person may not own or use it directly, it is reshaping economics across the planet. It is, in many ways, the best solution to a …
by Anthony W. Accurso
Police are tasked with upholding the law, but current case law has created a system where officers are actually incentivized to break the law by making bogus traffic stops.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that citizens will be free from …
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court of Ohio held that the Court of Appeals erred in applying the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule where the search warrant for cellphones found at the scene of a traffic accident stated that evidence of a crime “may” be …
by Anthony W Accurso
A California trial court held that ageofence warrant obtained by the San Francisco PD violated the Fourth Amendment and the recently enacted California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“CalECPA”), requiring future warrants to be more narrowly tailored.
People v. Dawes, Court No. 19002022, …
by Anthony W Accurso
THe Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that the information upon which an officer relied to conduct an investigatory stop was insufficiently particularized to constitute reasonable suspicion because it consisted only a vehicle’s make – a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
On a Saturday night in April, …
by Anthony W Accurso
A California trial court held that a geofencewarrant obtained by the San Francisco PD violated the Fourth Amendment and the recently enacted California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“CalECPA”), requiring future warrants to be more narrowly tailored.
People v. Dawes, Court No. 19002022, …
by Anthony W. Accurso
The Supreme Court of Wyoming held that a state trooper’s actions prior to observing a traffic violation rendered the traffic stop unreasonable under both the Wyoming and U.S. Constitutions.
On August 28th, 2018, Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Shane Carraher observed a black Nissan …
by Anthony W. Accurso
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a suppression motion relating to the warrantless search of a home where an absconded parolee was suspected to be residing. In doing so, the Court announced that law enforcement must have probable cause that …
