Opinion ID: 1154772
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Heading: the search incident to the lawful arrest

Text: The majority's short shrift of Officer Luke's search as an acceptable incident to a lawful arrest reflects a myopic view of contemporaneity and expansiveness that is both moribund and unwarranted under current law. See Chimel, 395 U.S. at 763, 89 S.Ct. at 2040 (a lawful custodial arrest justifies the contemporaneous warrantless search of a person and of the immediately surrounding area). Fortunately, however, the instant case is controlled by Belton rather than Chimel since Greenwald was the occupant of a vehicle prior to his arrest. The arrest in Belton was occasioned by a New York State Trooper stopping the driver of a speeding vehicle. In the course of securing the driver's license and registration, the officer smelled the odor of burned marijuana and noticed an envelope on the floorboard marked Supergold. Believing the envelope to contain marijuana, the officer ordered the occupants out of the car and placed them under arrest. After a pat search of the men, the officer secured them at different areas of the throughway and then proceeded to search the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The officer found a jacket on the back seat, unzipped one of the pockets and discovered cocaine. Belton was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. Belton's unsuccessful motion to suppress the cocaine was overturned by the New York Court of Appeals which held (as the majority does here), that the search of the zippered pocket was not a valid search incident to arrest because `there was no longer any danger that the arrestee or a confederate might gain access to the article.' 453 U.S. at 456, 101 S.Ct. at 2862. The United States Supreme Court reversed holding that: [W]hen a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile. It follows from this conclusion that the police may also examine the contents of any containers found within the passenger compartment, for if the passenger compartment is within the reach of the arrestee, so also will containers in it be within his reach. (Citations omitted.) Such a container may, of course, be searched whether it is open or closed, since the justification for the search is not that the arrestee has no privacy interest in the container, but that the lawful custodial arrest justifies the infringement of any privacy interest the arrestee may have. 453 U.S. at 460-61, 101 S.Ct. at 2864 (footnotes omitted). [2] Belton both clarified and expanded Chimel for the express purpose of establishing a workable rule for determining what constitutes the area within the immediate control of the arrestee. The Belton Court thus defined that area to include the entire passenger compartment of a vehicle and any containers, whether open or closed, found therein. 453 U.S. at 460, 101 S.Ct. at 2864. I must conclude from both the spirit and the letter of Belton, that Officer Luke's search of the motorcycle's saddlebags and the containers found therein was constitutionally permissible. Moreover, the majority has cited no basis for its conclusion that the parallel provision in Nevada's Constitution should be interpreted any differently than the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Other federal and state courts have also validated searches incident to a lawful arrest after the arrestee has been handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. See, e.g., United States v. White, 871 F.2d 41, 44 (6th Cir.1989) (even after arrestee has been separated from his vehicle and is no longer within reach of the vehicle or its contents, the Belton rule ... applies, and such a search is valid); United States v. Karlin, 852 F.2d 968 (7th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1021, 109 S.Ct. 1142, 103 L.Ed.2d 202 (1989) (search incident to arrest upheld where defendant was arrested, handcuffed, patted down and placed in squad car); United States v. McCrady, 774 F.2d 868 (8th Cir.1985) (search of locked glove compartment after defendant arrested and in patrol car upheld as search incident to arrest); United States v. Cotton, 751 F.2d 1146 (10th Cir.1985) ( Belton does not require arresting officer to undergo a detailed analysis at the time of arrest of whether the handcuffed arrestee could reach into the car to seize an item within it); United States v. Collins, 668 F.2d 819 (5th Cir.1982) (search after arrestee handcuffed upheld as search incident to arrest); see also State v. Wheaton, 121 Idaho 404, 825 P.2d 501 (1992) (search of car incident to arrest upheld where defendant had been arrested, handcuffed and placed in patrol car); State v. Haught, 122 Idaho 104, 831 P.2d 946 (Ct.App.1992) (a search made while the arrestee is at the place of arrest is incident to arrest even though the arrestee is handcuffed and placed in the patrol car, with little or no chance of destroying evidence or obtaining a weapon); State v. Fladebo, 113 Wash.2d 388, 779 P.2d 707 (1989) (during arrest process, even after suspect is arrested, handcuffed, and placed in patrol car, officers are permitted to search passenger compartment of vehicle for destructible evidence or weapons); People v. Boff, 766 P.2d 646 (Colo.1988) (search of motorcyclist's backpack at station after he was placed in custody upheld as incident to arrest); State v. Hensel, 417 N.W.2d 849 (N.D.1988) (search of vehicle conducted after defendant was arrested, handcuffed and placed in police car constitutional as search incident to lawful arrest). [3] In summary on this point, the bright line rule established by Belton is perhaps best illuminated within the framework of the decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Karlin. The defendant in Karlin had sought to distinguish his situation from that in Belton by emphasizing that he had been arrested, handcuffed and placed in the patrol car prior to the search, whereas in Belton the arrestees had been made less secure and separated to positions in closer proximity to their vehicle. The Karlin court dispensed with Karlin's contention by stating: If those differences in degree are to control, the Court's preference for a straight-forward rule for guidance of police officers and avoidance of hindsight determinations in litigation would be frustrated. It seems quite likely that, in instances where occupants of a car are arrested, they will be outside the car and will have been placed under some measure of security before the car is searched. Karlin's contention would require a factual determination in each instance of how thoroughly the arrestee had been secured and his distance from the vehicle. It is significant that in Belton, the New York Court had determined, as Karlin proposes here, that by the time of the search there was no longer any danger that the arrestee or a confederate might gain access to the article. 852 F.2d at 970-71. I note that the facts in Karlin are squarely on point with the instant case, as Karlin had been removed from his vehicle, arrested, separated from his identification, pat searched, handcuffed, and secured in the patrol car prior to the search. The only added factor here, and I submit that it is of no significance, is that the officer had called the towing company to come for the motorcycles before commencing his search. The fact that Officer Luke, in a state of understandable confusion, sought to justify his search of Greenwald's motorcycle and attached containers as an inventory search is of no moment as far as the constitutional validity of the search is concerned. In Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 98 S.Ct. 1717, 56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978), the Court concluded that the fact that the officer does not have the state of mind which is hypothecated by the reasons which provide the legal justification for the officer's action does not invalidate the action taken as long as the circumstances, viewed objectively, justify the action. Id. at 138, 98 S.Ct. at 1723. Stated otherwise, [i]n judging the legality of a search, courts must apply an objective standard and will not be bound by the subjective beliefs of the arresting officer. United States v. Jenkins, 496 F.2d 57, 72 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 925, 95 S.Ct. 1119, 43 L.Ed.2d 394 (1974). Unfortunately, neither the district court nor the majority in the instant appeal has considered or recognized the eminently reasonable rule of objective analysis articulated in Scott and Jenkins. Based upon the foregoing authorities and analysis, I submit that Officer Luke's search was constitutionally justified as a search incident to a lawful arrest, and that his attempt to validate or justify the search as an inventory search is of no determinative significance.