A defendant who approached police to ask what was “going on with [his] uncle,” who had just been arrested for cocaine possession, was not subjected to a Fourth Amendment violation when he was detained while police waited for a drug ...

Tagged with: Judge Sam W. Coleman III Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals

An officer who says he always pats down a pedestrian or a bike rider did not have a particularized suspicion to support his pat-down of defendant, and the pat-down violated defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights; the Court of Appeals reverses defendant’s ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert J. Humphreys Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals

Although police entered an apartment they saw defendant flee to as they attempted to execute an arrest warrant for defendant, their entry did not violate the Fourth Amendment, says a Richmond U.S. District Court. When officers enter a third party’s ...

Tagged with: Judge Henry E. Hudson Search & Seizure U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Police had a reasonable articulable suspicion to detain defendant where they received reports defendant was walking down the street with a rifle and they observed him, “staggering back and forth across the street,” unsteady on his feet, holding a rifle ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert J. Humphreys Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals

On its own motion, the Virginia Court of Appeals has decided to hear en banc its Sept. 7 decision upholding use of a warrantless GPS device on a man suspected of multiple sexual assaults in the Arlington area. Judge Randolph ...

Tagged with: Search & Seizure

A trial court erred in suppressing a gun defendant had in his right front pocket when police stopped him on a tip that a shooting suspect had left an IHOP in a “dark colored Dodge Durango,” and the Court of ...

Tagged with: Judge Walter S. Felton Jr. Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals upholds suppression of ammunition and a controlled substance discovered when police made a warrantless entry into defendant’s home, claiming justification under the “emergency doctrine” because defendant’s wife had called for assistance. When a deputy arrived at ...

Tagged with: Judge William G. Petty Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals

An Albemarle County Circuit Court sets aside two Civil Investigative Demands filed by the Virginia Attorney General against a U.Va. professor because the Attorney General has not sufficiently stated, under an objective standard, the “nature of the conduct” that gives ...

Tagged with: Albemarle County Circuit Court Search & Seizure Virginia Circuit Courts

A police officer had an objectively reasonable basis to conclude he had been invited onto the curtilage of a rental home by people with authority to grant such access, where the officer was responding to the landlord’s complaint that he ...

Tagged with: Judge Leonie Brinkema Search & Seizure U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A passenger in a car has no standing to challenge the search of the car by police, and the Court of Appeals affirms convictions for possession of both heroin and a gun. The defendant was a right rear passenger when ...

Tagged with: Judge Robert P. Frank Search & Seizure Virginia Court of Appeals