- RORABAUGH, 74 CA5 296, 289 CR3 393 (22) #C090482:
While executing a search warrant at Def’s home, police learned that one of his cars was a short distance away, at a ranch owned by one Christensen. Police went to the ranch and towed the car away to be stored until they could obtain a warrant to search it.
Later, the trial court denied Def’s 1538.5 motion to suppress DNA evidence found in the car. He was found guilty of first degree murder, with a sentence of 25 to life.
The Court of Appeal, per Hoch, J., reversed and remanded.
Def’s motion argued that a “warrantless seizure of the car from private property where it was rightly stored” violated the Fourth Amendment, as explained in Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971) 403 U.S. 443. He argued that officers “could easily have adapted the warrants” they had already obtained “for the seizure of the car. But instead they chose to go behind the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment and conduct their own extra-judicial procedure without the signature of a neutral and detached magistrate.”
The People argued that the seizure of the car was well within the automobile exception as developed by the Supreme Court after Coolidge, which holds that officers can search a car independent of the detention or arrest of a defendant when there is probable cause to believe the vehicle contains evidence of a crime.
The Court’s held as follows:
If (a) police do not have an otherwise lawful right of access to an unattended car on private property, and (b) it is not impracticable to obtain a warrant, then (c) warrantless seizure of the car accomplished by trespassing on private property (and subsequently searching the car at another location) is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, and does not fall within the automobile exception, even if there is probable cause to search it.
In answer to the People’s arguments:
The People attempt to distinguish Coolidge, arguing “the record shows that it was not practicable for the police to secure a warrant before seizing the vehicle.” The record shows no such thing. We can discern no way in which it would have been impracticable to return to the judge who authorized the search warrant in order to obtain authorization to seize the car sitting on Christensen’s land.
The People’s contention that the car was “readily mobile” also lacks support in the record. The People concede for purposes of the Fourth Amendment issue that defendant had already been arrested at his home, and was in custody before police towed the car, and Christensen did not have a key to the car.
Cases the People rely on in supplemental briefing are distinguishable. Florida v. White (1999) 526 U.S. 559, 119 S.Ct. 1555, 143 L.Ed.2d 748 was a case about warrantless seizure of a car, where “the vehicle itself was contraband under” state law. (Id. at p. 565, 119 S.Ct. 1555.) No such principle applies here. Further, the high court emphasized that the warrantless seizure at issue occurred in a “public area,” whereas here, the car was on private property.
Your Humble Editor Has Written a Book
It being a rather light update this time around, may I offer a small commercial?
Some of you remember my dad, Art Bell, a great L.A. lawyer who conceived and operated Bell’s Compendium for 20 years. I was able to work with him for a couple of years before he died, enabling me to carry on his work.
Dad grew up in Hollywood, next door to Joel McCrea and across the street from Jason Robards. He went to Hollywood High, then UCLA (where he played baseball alongside Jackie Robinson). In the 30s, to make some money, he became an extra for the movie industry. He joined the Screen Extras Guild and went out on dozens of calls.
One of them was for a Civil War movie. You may recall Gone With the Wind. Remember the scene at the train station, where Scarlett has to wade through the entire yard filled with wounded and dying soldiers? Then you saw my dad (somewhere!) He later told me the dead soldiers were dummies, so at least he got a meatier role.
When he returned from World War II he grabbed a few more extra roles, one of them being in the enduring classic The Best Years of Our Lives.
Then he settled with his wife and two sons (I was not yet in the picture) in Woodland Hills, went to law school at USC, and began the practice of law. When I picture my dad in those days, I always see him in black and white, wearing a fedora.
That’s whey I’ve always been a fan of movies set in the 1940s and 50s. I’m especially fond of film noir from that era.
I’m also a fan of classic pulp fiction, crime and detective stories that grabbed readers from the start and held them to the end. Turns out Dad was a friend of one of those writers from the Golden Age, W. T. Ballard. Ballard wrote for the fabled Black Mask pulp magazine, alongside people like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. A series character Ballard created was Bill Lennox, a “troubleshooter” for a Hollywood studio. I liked those stories, and one day decided to try my hand at one featuring a troubleshooter named William “Wild Bill” Armbrewster. I set the story in 1945 Hollywood, just after the war ended.
It turned into a “novelette”, a popular pulp length that’s, well, more than a short story and less than a novella (which is less than a novel!) Then I wrote another and another…until I had six of them. I gave them to a select group of readers and got back rave reviews.
So I’m publishing them all in a book called TROUBLE IS MY BEAT. Here’s the blurb:
Bill Armbrewster is the troubleshooter for National-Consolidated Pictures. That means getting leading men out of the drunk tank … or a murder rap. It means keeping wolves away from starlets and dancers away from temptation. Once it even means helping Bette Davis out of a jam.
From City Hall to the Sunset Strip—and all points in between—William “Wild Bill” Armbrewster, a Marine who fought in France in the first World War, gets between the studio talent and a raft of swindlers and hooligans, killers and thieves.
Fair warning: Don’t get on his bad side.
The ebook version is available for pre-order on Amazon for the deal price of $2.99 (a print version will come out later). You can place your order now by going HERE.
I thank you for your kind indulgence!