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S.D. N.Y.: Missing child ruse to gain entry to look around invalidated entry and consents

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Use of a ruse of looking for a missing girl invalidated defendant's consent to enter his hotel room to look around. Once inside, officers asked for consent to look for weapons, and then looked in a bag and found heroin which led to defendant's indictment. The court distinguished other valid ruses from this one. United States v. Montes-Reyes, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30102 (S.D. N.Y. April 14, 2008) (PACER link): Based on the facts found at the April 7 hearing and the Fourth Amendment standards described above, the consent Montes-Reyes gave to Agent Luna cannot be considered voluntary, as the "missing girl" ruse used by Agent Luna created a false sense of exigent circumstances similar to that raised in a "gas leak" scenario. The Government's attempts to distinguish these two scenarios are unavailing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).