Court Opinion

ID: 9450784
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:57:33.800453+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:26.872485
License: Public Domain

EDWARDS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
As set forth in Judge McAllister’s opinion for the Court, I agree fully that there was probable cause for these police officers to believe that defendant was engaged in committing or had committed a felony, and, hence, that his arrest without warrant was a lawful arrest. Before the decision in Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 84 S.Ct. 881, 11 L.Ed.2d 777 (1964) (Decided by the United States Supreme Court on March 23, 1964) it could also effectively be argued that the search with which we are concerned in this appeal was incidental to the lawful arrest. Clearly, (since their action was taken long before Preston) the police officers concerned had no reason to have any doubt of their right to search the vehicle concerned on its arrival at the polic garage.
Nevertheless, I regret that I cannot agree with the Court that the several distinctions pointed out in Judge McAllister’s opinion between the factual situation here and that in Preston serve effectively to place this case outside of the rule established in Preston. The search here was distant both in place and time from the lawful arrest. It was made in the police garage, where obviously the prisoner was in safe custody and the automobile could have been quarantined until a search warrant was procured. I read Preston as saying that in these circumstances a search warrant is deemed essential for compliance with the Fourth Amendment.
I would reverse,