State v. Boyd, 275 Kan. 271

Summary

The Kansas Supreme Court held that police violated a passenger's Fourth Amendment rights by searching her purse after ordering her to leave it in a vehicle during a consensual vehicle search. The court distinguished Wyoming v. Houghton, concluding that the passenger had attempted to retain control of the purse and that probable cause to search the vehicle had not existed when she was ordered to leave it behind. The court reversed the lower court judgments and remanded for a new trial.

Holdings

1. When a passenger is ordered out of a lawfully stopped vehicle and, in response to an officer's order, leaves her purse in the vehicle, a subsequent search of the purse as part of a vehicle search violates the passenger's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
2. Discovery of a crack pipe after Boyd was ordered to leave her purse in the vehicle did not retroactively justify the search of the purse because the officers lacked probable cause to search the vehicle at the time they required her to leave it behind.
3. The State did not establish that the cocaine was inevitably discoverable merely because Boyd later disclosed the contents of her purse while under arrest.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Fourth Amendment permitted police to search a passenger's purse after ordering the passenger to leave it in a vehicle during a consensual vehicle search.
2. Whether probable cause arising from discovery of a crack pipe in the vehicle justified the subsequent search of Boyd's purse.
3. Whether the discovery of the cocaine was inevitable because Boyd later disclosed the contents of her purse.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded