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UT: Frisk of bystander was without RS and invalid

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant was a mere bystander to the frisk of his friend that produced a knife in the friend’s pocket. The officer frisked defendant, too, but without reasonable suspicion, and a hard cylindrical object was felt in defendant’s pocket. The officer went for it thinking it might be a knife, but it was a container of meth. The frisk was invalid. State v. Lowe, 2010 UT App 156, 2010 Utah App. LEXIS 160 (June 17, 2010). Officers reasonably believed that defendant dropped drugs during his flight from them, and his reappearance in bushes made reasonable his arrest. People v. Holman, 2010 Ill. App. LEXIS 579 (June 10, 2010).* Police received a call from defendant’s wife that he was driving drunk, and the vehicle description and route to the high school to pick up kids was given...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 22, 2010 (boomark / email).