Court Opinion

ID: 9678358
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:17:34.862317+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:03.822724
License: Public Domain

Allen, J.
(dissenting in part). I agree that the trial court erred in suppressing evidence of the pistol. However, as a member of the panel which sat in People v Merchant, 86 Mich App 355; 272 NW2d 656 (1978), I cannot agree with the majority that "the Merchant decision does not strike a proper balance between an individual’s relatively high expectation of privacy” and the state’s interest in protecting the public. To begin with, Mer*279chant was followed without criticism in People v Godwin, 94 Mich App 286, 289-290; 288 NW2d 354 (1979).
More significantly, defendant in the instant case was not arrested because of the heroin in the briefcase, but was arrested for carrying a pistol in a motor vehicle and was handcuffed and sitting in the police cruiser under such arrest before the briefcase was opened. The distinction is important. As we stated in Merchant:
"However, Chadwick [433 US 1; 97 S Ct 2476; 53 L Ed 2d 538 (1977)] was not an inventory case since the arrests there were based on the contents of the footlocker as disclosed by the search. Here, defendant was not arrested for the heroin found in his briefcase but was arrested on outstanding warrants on charges of larceny from a building, and was about to be taken to jail on said charges. Under the circumstances, the police were making a standard type inventory of the items defendant had with him prior to being taken to jail.” Merchant, supra, 361.
In my opinion, the police were conducting an inventory search at the time the briefcase was opened. Accordingly, the trial court erred in suppressing evidence of the heroin. I would remand for trial on the charges of carrying a pistol and possession of heroin.