United States v. Iraheta, et al., No. 13-30545 (5th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseThe government appealed the district court's grant of Defendant Gonzalez and Meraz-Garcia's motions to suppress drugs obtained pursuant to an automobile search by police at a traffic stop. The court concluded that the government has not waived the issue of whether defendants have the requisite standing to support a Fourth Amendment claim where the district court appropriately exercised its discretion and decided the issue even though it was not presented to the magistrate judge. The court also concluded that the district court properly granted defendants' motion to suppress where, although defendants did not object to the search nor claim ownership of the luggage searched, that is not decisive under these facts. It is undisputed that defendants did not hear the driver (a co-defendant) of the vehicle give consent to the search nor were they ever informed of the driver's consent by the officers. Under these circumstances, the onus was on the officers to act reasonably. All of the facts indicated a likelihood that the luggage did not belong to the driver, and therefore, it was not reasonable to rely on the driver's consent alone in searching the bag. The search was unconstitutional and the court affirmed the district court's grant of the motions to suppress.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 20, 2014.
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