Court Opinion

ID: 9742463
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:14:16.132319+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:32.795442
License: Public Domain

ROBB, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion, but write separately as to the admission of evidence issue only to note that there can be a murky line between a parole search and an investigatory search, because the same conduct may be both a parole violation and a new crime. It is even more murky in this case, where both Montrose, as Micheau’s parole officer, and the Jay County Sheriffs Department had received information regarding Micheau’s alleged manufacture of methamphetamine and the parole office and the police may have had concomitant investigations underway. However, because this search was initiated by Montrose, because Montrose testified at the suppression hearing that there were certain procedures he was required to follow when conducting a search, and because there was no evidence or testimony to suggest that Montrose did not follow those procedures in conducting this search, cf. Bonner v. State, 776 N.E.2d 1244, 1249 (Ind.Ct.App.2002) (“If the search was not conducted within the regulatory scheme of probation enforcement, then it will be subject to the usual requirement that a warrant supported by probable cause be obtained.”), trans. denied, I agree that this was a parole search and that the trial court did not err in admitting the evidence obtained as a result of the search.