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HI: Conflict of laws: Search on a military base by NCIS governed by federal law in a state murder case

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Federal law should govern a federal NCIS search on a military base for evidence of a murder of a civilian employee on the base that ends up prosecuted in state court. The court finds that this is a narrow issue in this case. The security search of defendant’s car on the military base was also valid. State v. Torres, 2009 Haw. App. LEXIS 781 (December 15, 2009). We further conclude that Sergeant Rozkiewicz's security inspection of Torres's car was lawful based on Torres's implied consent and that the Command Authorization validly authorized the subsequent full-scale search by federal agents. Based on federal appellate court decisions involving searches in analogous circumstances on military bases, we hold that Torres implicitly consented to the search of his car, at least to the extent of the security inspection conducted by Sergeant Rozkiewicz...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 29, 2009 (boomark / email).