Court Opinion

ID: 9625582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:45:01.895427+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:11.249145
License: Public Domain

STRUCKMEYER, Vice Chief Justice
(dissenting).
This case raises a basic question concerning the permissible scope under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of a search incident to a lawful arrest. The question as to the reasonableness of the search is dependent upon the facts and circumstances, the total atmosphere, of the case, and “those facts and circumstances must be viewed in the light of established Fourth Amendment principles.” Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 765, 89 S.Ct. 2034 at 2041, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 at 695 (1969).
These facts and circumstances set forth by the majority in their decision merit stressing. Four armed police officers entered the motel room of Harvey Noles, placed him under arrest, handcuffed his hands behind his back and forced him to sit on the floor of the motel room while they searched the motel room for two guns they were told he had.
The arrest at the point where Noles was handcuffed was an accomplished fact. Nothing was left for the officers to do then but take him to the police station for booking. It is clear, therefore, that the arresting officers intended to search Noles’ room, otherwise there would be no reason whatsoever for them at this point to compel him to sit on the floor.
In Chimel v. California, supra, Justice Potter Stewart, writing for the majority, put it this way:
“There is ample justification, therefore, for a search of the arrestee’s person and the area ‘within his immediate control’— construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.
There is no comparable justification, however, for routinely searching any room other than that in which an arrest occurs — or, for that matter, for searching through all the desk drawers or other closed or concealed areas in that room itself. Such searches, in the absence of well-recognized exceptions, may be made only under the authority of a search warrant. The ‘adherence to judicial processes’ mandated by the Fourth Amendment requires no less.” 395 U.S. at 763, 89 S.Ct. at 2040, 23 L.Ed.2d at 694.
The asserted justification for searching the night stand drawer was the danger that this man, who had his hands cuffed behind his back and was surrounded by four armed police officers, might gain possession of a weapon. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the night stand was an area within his “immediate control” after Noles’ arrest and restraint. This ignores the reality of not only his restraint but the simple, unalterable fact that the only action necessary to conclude the arrest was to remove Noles from his room to a place of confinement.
The facts of this case, when examined in the light of Fourth Amendment principles, compel me to conclude that the search was unreasonable and that Judi Carol Noles’ conviction should be reversed.
GORDON, concurs.