Opinion ID: 2184913
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: limitations based on presence

Text: In defining the scope of the search, the consenting party may impose limitations on the right of the police to search, as, for example, he may consent to a search on condition he be allowed to be present while it is being conducted. Herron v. State, 1970, 3 Tenn.Cr.App. 39, 456 S.W.2d 873 (modified as to death penalty, 408 U.S. 937, 92 S.Ct. 2865, 33 L.Ed.2d 756). Conditions thus imposed, however, may subsequently be waived and, if so, the search may continue in the absence of the consenting party. Herron v. State, supra. See also, Commonwealth v. Garreffi, supra. A consent search is a limited and conditional search only insofar as the consenting party has expressly stated, or, under the reasonable man standard in the light of all the existing circumstances, is deemed in fact to have impliedly attached, certain limitations under which the officers are authorized by him to search. The character of the search is determined by the scope of the authorization as understood by reasonable men having knowledge of all the existing factual circumstances, and not by any limitational rule of law applicable to all consent searches. In the present case, the words used by the presiding Justice indicate that he viewed all consent searches as being generally limited in scope. He stated that consent to search is not a wide open consent which means that officers are free at will to forever rummage through the personal property of the individual who has consented. I think it is a consent to a reasonable and a limited search. It is a consent to one search. Not a consent to a series of searches . . . (Emphasis added.) From this language it is apparent that the Justice was not attempting specifically to characterize Mrs. Koucoules' alleged consent. It does not appear his ruling was that she in fact had given only a limited consent or that her consent had been revoked. His decision seems to have been made quite apart from any consideration of the actual limits, if any, which she herself may have imposed. But, as we have noted above, a given consent may be general and, absent limitations or conditions, express or implied, the police are not confined to conducting only a reasonable and limited search. It is true, as stated by the Justice below, that consent to search does not ordinarily last forever. When consent is given to search an area, it does not mean the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures has been waived forever. People v. Chism, 1971, 32 Mich.App. 610, 189 N.W.2d 435, affd., 390 Mich. 104, 211 N.W.2d 193; see, State v. Brochu, supra. It is also true that a consent which itself limits the officers to one search will not suffice to sustain a second search. Pinizzotto v. Superior Court, 1968, 257 Cal.App.2d 582, 65 Cal.Rptr. 74. The question at issue is not, whether the search in the instant case was one of the forever lasting variety, nor whether we are dealing with successive independent searches instead of one continuous search, but rather, whether the police activity in searching Mrs. Koucoules' home exceeded the scope of the permission which she had given the officers.