United States v. Class, No. 16-4503 (8th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence. The court held that the district court did not clearly err in concluding that the unconstitutional seizure and detention of defendant was not meaningfully connected to the plain-view seizure of the bag of methamphetamine. The court also agreed with the district court that defendant failed to establish that the officer's unconstitutional detention was at least a but-for cause of the officer's lawful plain-view seizure of methamphetamine in the engine compartment.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Gruender and Benton, Circuit Judges] Criminal Case - suppression. District court did not clearly err in concluding the unconstitutional seizure and detention of defendant was not meaningfully connected to the plain-view seizure of the bag of methamphetamine, and properly rejected as unlikely speculation that but for the detention, the officer would not have seen the inside of the engine compartment. The motion to suppress was properly denied.
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