State of Louisiana v. Tremel Boss

Summary

The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal reviewed the State’s application for supervisory writs concerning the suppression of evidence seized from Tremel Boss. The court held that the trooper had probable cause and reasonable suspicion based on Boss’s face-covering and the surrounding circumstances, and that the ensuing search was constitutionally permissible as incident to a lawful arrest. The court granted the writ and reversed the district court’s ruling.

Holdings

1. The trooper had probable cause to arrest Boss because he directly observed conduct constituting a violation of La. R.S. 14:313; the statutory exception for carnival parades or Mardi Gras festivities did not eliminate the probable-cause inquiry in these circumstances.
2. The search of Boss's person was constitutionally permissible as a search incident to a lawful arrest because probable cause to arrest existed before the search, even though the search immediately preceded the formal arrest.
3. The investigatory stop was legally justified because Boss wore a full-face ski mask in the French Quarter shortly after a terrorist attack, circumstances that supported a reasonable law-enforcement concern despite the individual's privacy interest.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trooper had probable cause to stop and arrest Boss based on his observed violation of Louisiana's prohibition against wearing a mask or other facial disguise in public.
2. Whether the search of Boss's person that produced the firearm and Percocet pills was valid as a search incident to a lawful arrest.
3. Whether the totality of the circumstances supplied legal justification for the investigatory stop.

Disposition

reversed