Opinion ID: 1194670
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Protected Fourth Amendment Interest in the Truck

Text: Figueroa-Espana further contends that the district court erred in finding that he lacked a protected Fourth Amendment interest in the truck. The district court held that because Figueroa-Espana was not the owner of the vehicle and could not identify the owner, he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the vehicle and therefore could not challenge the legality of the search. [1] Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights which . . . may not be vicariously asserted. United States v. Jackson, 189 F.3d 502, 507 (7th Cir.1999) (internal quotations omitted). We have recognized that a driver who does not own a vehicle may still challenge a search of the vehicle. United States v. Garcia, 897 F.2d 1413, 1418-19 (7th Cir.1990). In order to determine whether a driver of a vehicle may challenge a search, we apply a two-pronged test, asking whether the defendant had a subjective and an objective right to privacy. United States v. Haywood, 324 F.3d 514, 515-16 (7th Cir.2003); United States v. Walker, 237 F.3d 845, 849 (7th Cir.2001). To satisfy the subjective portion of the test, a defendant must show that he actually and subjectively held an expectation of privacy. Torres, 32 F.3d at 230. An objective expectation is one that society recognizes as legitimate and reasonable. Haywood, 324 F.3d at 416 (citing Walker, 237 F.3d at 849). The burden is on the defendant to establish that he has a protected Fourth Amendment interest in the truck. Jackson, 189 F.3d at 508 (citing United States v. Torres, 32 F.3d 225, 230 (7th Cir.1994)). Figueroa-Espana fails both prongs of the test. He produced little evidence to suggest that he actually held an expectation of privacy in the truck. During the traffic stop, Figueroa-Espana could not affirmatively state how he came to be behind the wheel of the truck, reciting three contradictory stories. At the suppression hearing, Figueroa-Espana was given a chance to state definitively who owned the truck. Instead, he changed his story again, testifying that he did not know who actually owned the truck, and that he received the truck from [a] person whose name I don't know. Without evidence suggesting that Figueroa-Espana was driving the truck with someone else's permission, he cannot establish that he had a subjective expectation of privacy in the vehicle. Nor can he establish an objective expectation of privacy. In addition to being an unauthorized driver, Figueroa-Espana failed to produce a valid driver's license to either trooper. He should not have been driving any vehicle, let alone a truck of dubious origins, and therefore his objective expectation of privacy in the truck was neither legitimate nor reasonable. See Haywood, 324 F.3d at 516 (finding that an unlicensed and unauthorized driver did not have an objective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as legitimate and reasonable). Accordingly, Figueroa-Espana lacks a protected Fourth Amendment interest that would allow him to challenge the search of the truck.