CRIMINAL PROCEDURE - Professor Moskovitz
MIDTERM EXAM — Tuesday, October 13, 1998
You have ONE HOUR to complete this exam
To: My Law Clerk
From: Marilyn Manson, Esq.
My client, Diana Dealer, is charged with cultivating marijuana and sale of cocaine. I am thinking of filing a motion to suppress a marijuana plant and some rock cocaine. Please read the attached police report. If Officer Copp testifies at the hearing on the motion to suppress to the facts stated in the report, will the motion be granted?
Police Report
Last Friday evening, at 7 p.m., I was on patrol goes in the Sunset District of San Francisco. While driving past a house at 123 35th Avenue, I saw a car drive up, and then the driver go to the front door and hand something to a woman who answered the door, who gave the driver a paper bag. I then saw a man walking his dog nearby. I went over to him and asked him if he knew anything about the woman. He said, "That’s Diana Dealer. She sells drugs. Usually, at about 8’oclock, she drives her blue Chevy over to her supplier’s house to get more drugs."
I went over to Dealer’s house. The garage was about 20 feet from the house, and the garage door was partly open. I could see a blue Chevy in the garage. As I was walking over to the garage, Dealer came out of the house and started watering some flower pots on her front steps. I went up to her and told her she was under arrest for sale of illegal narcotics. I handcuffed her and put her in the back of my patrol car. I went back to the front steps and looked in the pots, where I found that a marijuana plant growing in one of them. I opened the garage door and went in. I went into the Chevy and saw a purse on the front seat. I opened it and found 4 pieces of rock cocaine.
Connie Copp, SFPD
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE - Professor Moskovitz
MIDTERM EXAM — Tuesday, October 13, 1998
OUTLINE OF ISSUES
I. Marijuana. Obtained through search incident to valid arrest?
A. Was arrest valid?
1. No e.c. or warrant needed. Santana.
2. Probable cause?
a. Cop’s observations were more ambiguous than in Cunha.
b. Tip was weak.
i. Reliability of informant?
Citizen informant?
ii. Basis of knowledge?
No direct statement re how dog-man knew.
Intimate knowledge?
c. "Totality" of weak tip + weak observations? Compare Gates.
B. Was search incident? Yes. Turner.
II. Cocaine
A. Fruit of unlawful arrest? As C was going to car before arrest, it does not seem that cocaine was result of arrest.
B. Entry into garage?
1. A search?
2. Unreasonable?
a. SIVA?
i. Was arrest valid?
ii. Was search incident to arrest?
D was not a recent occupant. Belton.
Was garage within D’s reach when arrested? Chimel.
b. P.C. + e.c.?
i. P.c.?
Note that C has all prior information, and now also has found the marijuana plant.
But plant might be solely for D’s personal use.
Even if C had p.c. to believe D sold drugs, why does it follow that she would have drugs in car now?
ii. E.c.?
Required?
Present? Note that D was to drive off at "8 o’clock."
c. Knock & announce? Was garage part of "home"?
C. Entry into car?
1. Search?
2. Unreasonable?
a. SIVA?
b. Auto exception? P.c. analysis same as above.
D. Opening purse?
1. Search?
2. Unreasonable?
a. SIVA?
b. Auto exception? Acevedo says auto exception applies to containers in car. C needs p.c. re purse.