Court Opinion

ID: 9546451
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:29:32.251853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:28.558667
License: Public Domain

BRETT, Presiding Judge
(specially concurring).
The question of search and seizure in this case is a close one and my view of it is controlled only by the unique circumstances surrounding the arrest of the defendant. The facts of this case reveal that when the arresting officers stopped the defendant’s automobile it was on a busy street, in a small town, on Saturday night. To add more to the unique circumstances, the defendant — who was wearing a hairstyle now typical of the rebellious youth- — • began offering resistance to the arresting officers. As the arrest progressed, the officers observed that a crowd of people commenced to gather around the scene. Consequently, they reached the decision that wisdom dictated the search of the automobile should be made under less trying circumstances. Hence, they locked the vehicle, took the defendant to the police station for booking, which function required more than an hour to accomplish. After that otherwise routine task was performed, the officers had the vehicle towed to a place where they could properly search the vehicle without interference. Under those circumstances, it seems to me that the search and seizure was incident to the arrest.
This position is substantiated by the decision of the United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, in the decision rendered in United States v. Evans, 7 Cir., 385 F.2d 824, 825 (1967). That Court recited in a similar search and seizure case the following:
“We think the agents came to a reasonable conclusion that the search of the automobile should not be continued at the place where the search was first undertaken in view of the gathering crowd. As Judge Weinfeld said in United States ex rel. Montgomery v. Wallack, 255 F. Supp. 566, 569 (S.D.N.Y.1966) — ‘We need no current reminder that arrests in a crowded, substandard neighborhood ofttimes trigger explosive action. * * >’
The only difference between the two cases is that in the Evans case, supra, the two Federal agents arrested the defendant as he left a bar, when a search of his person was made. The agents then commenced to search the defendant’s automobile, when they noted a number of people were gathering near them. They decided it was advisable to move quickly, so defendant was placed in the agents’ car and one of the agents drove the defendant’s car to the basement of the Federal building, where they searched the car some twenty minutes later.
However, in the case under consideration it was not feasible for one officer to drive the police car while the other officer drove the defendant’s car, for the reason the defendant continued to resist the arrest and it required both officers to contain him. Under such circumstances it appears only reasonable to have searched the automobile after it was towed to a safe place. Considering all the factors' involved, the time differential, between the Evans case, supra, and the case at bar, is understandable.
Hence, I must conclude in this case, that the search and seizure was not in violation of defendant’s constitutional rights.