Posted On: August 1, 2008
CALIFORNIA SEARCH AND SEIZURE; COURT SAYS ACCESSING CELL PHONE HOURS AFTER THE ARREST IS JUST FINE
The defendant was arrested. He is transported to the police station. An hour after the arrest, the police seize the defendant's cell phone. Thirty minutes later, during interrogation of the defendant, the police access the phone's text message folder and retrieve an incriminating message.
The Court of Appeal has no trouble with this as a "search incident to arrest". You can see that the search wasn't contemporaneous with the arrest, but the Court of Appeal assures us that this doesn't matter. Searches incident to arrest are just fine, to protect the officer and to search for evidence of the crime.
People v. Diaz; 2008 DJ DAR 11973; DJ, 8/1/08; C/A 2nd, Div. 6
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