Neither LAPD’s internal rules and regulations nor P.C. § 632 (illegal eavesdropping) prevent the use of a patrol vehicle’s in-car video system recordings in subsequent departmental disciplinary proceedings, at least where the recordings are unintentional and/or show egregious misconduct. A police supervisor informally...
An in-custody suspect’s reinitiation of questioning after repeated invocations of his rights to silence and to the assistance of counsel may be found from the circumstances and need not be express.
Observations made during an illegal detention, leading to the recovery of an illegal firearm, requires the suppression of both the observation and the firearm.
The “Private Search Doctrine” does not legitimize a law enforcement officer’s warrantless opening and viewing of e-mail attachments that have already been determined as child pornography through a computerized hash identification system.
A Beheler admonishment, telling a suspect that he is not under arrest and is free to go, at least under the right circumstances, avoids the need to Mirandize a criminal suspect before questioning him.
Passengers may lawfully be required to remain in a vehicle during a lawful traffic stop. In the penalty phase of a capital murder cases, aggravating circumstances need not be unanimously agreed upon by the jurors, nor is proof beyond a reasonable doubt required to find an aggravating circumstance to be true.
The fact that a criminal suspect is a minor is a factor to take into consideration when attempting to take the custody out of an interrogation by telling the suspect he is not under arrest.
An officer kneeling on an armed arrestee’s back for a limited time in order to facilitate the handcuffing of the arrestee, while preventing him from reaching for a knife, does not prevent the officer from claiming qualified immunity from civil liability.
To constitute a robbery, it must be proved that the victim himself gave up personal property out of fear. It is insufficient that a reasonable person, in the same or similar circumstances, would have been afraid.
It is Sixth Amendment violation to place an undercover officer into a jail cell with an already charged defendant for the purpose of pumping that defendant for incriminating statements. Intentional Miranda violations will result in the suppression of any statements made by the defendant... read more
