Recently i handled a suppression motion in a San Gabriel Valley court. [can't reveal the name of the judge if i want to continue to practice law in this county:)] The basis of the motion was that the client was sitting in his car on a public street in the middle of the day, minding his own business. A deputy sheriff drove down the street because there was supposedly illegal activities going on from time to time at the house in front of which the client was parked. When the deputy drove by the client supposedly looked surprised, then slouched down in his car altho still in view. The deputy and his partner contacted the client, asked for a driver's license, and asked what he was doing there. Supposedly he said he was waiting for a friend, but couldn't name the friend or where the friend lived. Client was then ordered out of the car, and was placed in the police vehicle. He was subsequently asked if the deputy could retrieve his registration from the car, and supposedly he said yes. The deputy found contraband in the glove box while looking for the registration.
i objected to the search on the grounds that the police had no right to take the client out of his car and place him in the police vehicle. He had not committed any crime at that point, so the detention in the police vehicle was illegal. The judge ruled that it was legal to put him in the police car, and the retrieval of his registration was therefor also legal, and denied the suppression motion.
I have a very good friend who is a judge in Los Angeles who hears suppression motions all the time. When I explained the fact pattern i have just described, my friend the judge said without a doubt he would have ruled that placing the client in the police car was an unlawful detention, and anything that happened thereafter was illegal. He would have granted the suppression motion.
MORAL: It's not the law that matters, it's the judge who hears the case that matters. Forget law school...make friends with as many judges as possible.
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