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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Ind. Decisions - "Appeals court reverses South Bend cocaine conviction"
The Court of Appeals 2-1 decision yesterday in Tamica M. Webster v. State of Indiana is the subject of a story today in the South Bend Tribune:
SOUTH BEND — The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a woman’s cocaine possession conviction because the court says the search of her purse by police was unjust.
Tamica Webster was arrested in September 2007 during a traffic stop in South Bend in which an Indiana State Police officer pulled over Webster and her boyfriend on suspicion of speeding.
The police officer at first let Webster, who was not driving, walk toward a nearby gas station where she worked, according to the case summary, but later called her back because he believed she had the car’s registration in her purse.
The trooper than noticed that the woman’s purse appeared to be stretched and he believed she might have a gun. Webster also started acting strangely, clutching the bag and turning away from the officer after he repeatedly told her not to put her hands in her purse, according to the summary.
The officer then handcuffed Webster and searched the purse, where he found cocaine.
But the appeals court found that the degree of concern that Webster had violated the law was low and that the officer "asked Webster to come back to the traffic stop because he thought she had the vehicle registration, not because of suspicious criminal activity."
"The degree of intrusion was high because she complied with the officer's request to return to the traffic stop, which imposed on her liberty. When he ... searched her purse without a warrant, that was a severe intrusion on her ordinary activity," wrote appeals court Judge Michael Barnes.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 23, 2009 03:05 PM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions