Court Opinion

ID: 9454653
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:53:45.119154+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:13.268923
License: Public Domain

ALDRICH, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part).
With respect to the search of the defendant’s clothing it seems to me that there is a material difference between breaking into the trunk of a car that has merely been taken into protective custody, Preston v. United States, 1964, 376 U.S. 364, 84 S.Ct. 881, 11 L.Ed.2d 777, and reaching into the pocket of trousers removed from a prisoner. It is doubtless true that the fact that prem*407ises, whether real estate, or an automobile, could be searched at the time of the arrest does not mean that the police are free to return later. In such case what is involved is a new entry into property not truly possessed. The question in the' case at bar should be the type of dominion which the authorities exercised over the clothes, whether mere custody, or full possession. Cf. Cooper v. California, 1967, 386 U.S. 58, 87 S.Ct. 788, 17 L.Ed.2d 730.
This may be tested by asking the question whether, had the defendant 'demanded the return of his clothes prior to trial, the demand would have been enforceable. I would say not. This must be the assumption in Miller v. Eklund, 9 Cir., 1966, 364 F.2d 976. Accord, Margeson v. United States, 1 Cir., 1966, 361 F.2d 327, cert. denied 385 U.S. 830, 87 S.Ct. 68, 17 L.Ed.2d 66. My brethren would distinguish Miller, but I find it hard to think that if clothes can be introduced into evidence one cannot look into the pocket. I also find it hard to differentiate jin principle between a search of the clothes three days after the arrest, and six hours after, United States v. Caruso, 2 Cir., 1966, 358 F.2d 184. Regardless of the court’s jocosity, the arrest in Caruso was long over. The case there, and here, seems distinguishable from Preston not in terms of the number of hours after the arrest, but in terms of the nature of the possession. Again I cite Cooper v. California, supra.
The court would also distinguish the government’s laboratory examination cases on the ground that in the case at bar the clothing was not “seized” at the time of the arrest. It is merely this court’s legal conclusion that the clothing was not “seized” here — concededly it was taken.
Finally, I do not understand the court’s assertion that the purpose of the search was unconnected with the crime in question. Rather, it seems to me, it was connected with that crime and none other. The finding of heroin indicia in the defendant’s possession was precisely calculated to meet the defense that the addressing of, the original shipment to him was a mistake and that he was unconnected with the traffic.
By a process of distinguishing all other cases this court has become the first to hold, so far as appears, that a defendant’s right of privacy is not infringed if his trousers are removed and searched today, but is invaded if the police return tomorrow to the clothes locker. I dislike being a disagreer, but this seems to me a pointless nicety.