278 Or. App. 512
Tillamook Cty. Cir. Ct., O.R.2016Background
- Officers responded to a report of armed suspects chasing a man in a park and found defendant disheveled and behaving erratically.
- Defendant told officers he had left a backpack in the park; Sergeant Jackson accompanied him to retrieve it.
- At the backpack, Jackson asked to search it; defendant said, “yeah, go ahead.”
- Jackson opened the backpack and then opened a knotted, opaque Fred Meyer grocery bag inside, discovering psilocybin mushrooms.
- Defendant moved to suppress the mushrooms, arguing his consent was involuntary and, alternatively, that consent to search the backpack did not authorize opening the closed grocery bag.
- The trial court denied the motion; defendant took a conditional no-contest plea and appealed. The appellate court reversed the denial of suppression as to the closed bag and remanded.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voluntariness of consent to search backpack | State: totality shows defendant coherent enough to voluntarily consent | Defendant: intoxicated on psychedelics, lacked capacity to consent | Not decided on appeal (court assumed arguendo and resolved on scope) |
| Scope of consent — did consent to search backpack include closed grocery bag inside? | State: general consent and failure to revoke imply consent extended to containers inside | Defendant: general consent to backpack did not authorize intrusion into a separate closed container | Held: No — search of closed bag exceeded scope; evidence suppressed, conviction reversed and remanded |
Key Cases Cited
- State v. Davis, 295 Or. 227 (discusses presumptive unreasonableness of warrantless searches) (Oregon Supreme Court)
- State v. Bea, 318 Or. 220 (consent is an exception to warrant requirement) (Oregon Supreme Court)
- State v. Harvey, 194 Or. App. 102 (general consent can include closed containers when circumstances indicate officer sought drugs) (Oregon Court of Appeals)
- State v. Delong, 275 Or. App. 295 (scope of consent measured by what a reasonable person in defendant’s position would have understood) (Oregon Court of Appeals)
- State v. Jacobsen, 142 Or. App. 341 (general consent does not authorize search of closed container when officer’s request was not specific) (Oregon Court of Appeals)
- State v. Allen, 112 Or. App. 70 (officer’s stated objects—weapons, narcotics, money—can make consent reasonably extend to closed containers) (Oregon Court of Appeals)