State v. Tognotti

Summary

The Supreme Court of North Dakota considered whether police may search a nonarrested passenger's purse during a vehicle search incident to the arrest of another occupant. The court held that such a search is permissible when the purse was voluntarily left in the vehicle, but not when the officer directed the passenger to leave it there. The court reversed the suppression order and remanded for a limited evidentiary hearing on whether the officer gave that instruction.

Holdings

1. Incident to a valid arrest of an occupant of a vehicle, the arresting officer may search the contents of a nonarrested occupant's purse when the purse was in the vehicle at the time of the arrest and the occupant voluntarily left it in the vehicle.
2. If an officer instructs a nonarrested occupant to leave her purse in the vehicle, the officer may not search the purse incident to the arrest of another occupant; such a search violates the occupant's Fourth Amendment rights.
3. The trial court's finding that Tognotti left her purse in the vehicle at the officer's direction was unsupported by the record and against the manifest weight of the evidence; the issue required a limited evidentiary hearing.

Questions Presented

1. Whether, incident to the valid arrest of one occupant of a vehicle, an officer may search a purse belonging to a nonarrested occupant when the purse was in the vehicle at the time of the arrest and was voluntarily left there.
2. Whether the Fourth Amendment permits the officer to search the nonarrested occupant's purse when the officer instructed the occupant to leave it in the vehicle.
3. Whether the trial court's factual finding that Tognotti left her purse in the vehicle at the officer's direction was supported by sufficient competent evidence.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded