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CA9: Police illegally followed up private search; Jacobsen applies only to contraband findings

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant had been locked out of his room by hotel security, but he had not been evicted yet. He retained an expectation of privacy in his hotel room. The private search doctrine of Jacobsen is limited to pure contraband in the container, following the Sixth Circuit in United States v. Allen, 106 F.3d 695 (6th Cir. 1997). The government also failed in showing that inevitable discovery permitted admission of the gun found into evidence. United States v. Young, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 15500 (9th Cir. July 14, 2009): It is a crime to possess cocaine, and the package in Jacobsen contained "nothing but contraband." 466 U.S. at 120 n.17. This case is distinguishable from Jacobsen because neither the hotel room nor the backpack contained only contraband...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 17, 2009 (boomark / email).