Opinion ID: 4204464
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Search of Sharp III’s Person

Text: “[E]xcept in certain carefully defined classes of cases, a search of private property without proper consent is ‘unreasonable’ unless it has been authorized by a valid search warrant.” Camara v. Mun. Court of City & Cty. of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523, 528–29 (1967). It is obvious that no exception for a search made incident to an unlawful 4 I do not mean to say that an arrest could never turn into a detention. However, the facts in this case do not support such a conclusion. Perhaps if the deputies had taken Sharp III out of the patrol car and explicitly informed him that he was not under arrest, the arrest would de-escalate into a detention. As it stands, it is difficult to imagine a scenario where a person is not under arrest when they are forcibly handcuffed and placed into the back of a patrol vehicle. See United States v. Del Vizo, 918 F.2d 821, 824 (9th Cir. 1990) (“There has been an arrest if, under the circumstances, a reasonable person would conclude that he was not free to leave after brief questioning.”). 50 SHARP V. COUNTY OF ORANGE arrest exists; therefore, the deputies had sufficient notice that an unlawful arrest would result in an unlawful search. Thus, the search made incident to Sharp III’s unlawful arrest was an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches. Since the deputies had fair warning that the search violated Sharp III’s Fourth Amendment rights, they are not entitled to qualified immunity. The District Court was right; this claim should go to trial.