Leaning into a Vehicle as a Fourth Amendment Search

• Searches of Vehicles
• Leaning Into a Vehicle as a Search
• Minimal Intrusiveness Into a Vehicle
• Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
• Inevitable Discovery

A police officer who, during an otherwise lawful traffic stop, opens the car’s door and leans into it without probable cause or any other particularized justification, violates the Fourth Amendment.  Leaning into a vehicle constitutes a search.  Any products of that illegal act are subject to possible suppression.  Failure to argue possible applicable search and seizure issues waives them.

In the early morning hours of May 6, 2018, San Francisco Police Officer Kolby Willmes noticed defendant Malik Ngumezi sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle in a gas station.  Officer Willmes also noticed that the vehicle did not have any license plates; an apparent violation of V.C. § 5200(a).  Not observed by the officer was a bill of sale affixed to the lower passenger-side corner of the windshield.  Because a gas pump blocked access to the driver’s side, Officer Willmes walked to the passenger side of the car and—according to defendant—opened the passenger door, leaned into the car, and asked defendant for his driver’s license and vehicle registration.  (Officer Willmes later testified that he could not remember whether he opened the door and leaned into the car, or whether he merely talked to defendant through the open window.  The Court, therefore, assumed that defendant’s version of the facts is what had actually happened.)  Unable to produce anything other than a California identification card, it was quickly determined that defendant’s license was suspended and that he’d received three prior citations for driving ....