Prolonged Detentions and Seizure of an Item that is Lawful to Possess

• Detentions and Plain Sight Seizures
• Prolonged Detentions
• Abandonment
• Intervening Circumstances and Attenuation of the Taint
• Flight as a Possible Attenuation of the Taint

The plain sight observation of a non-contraband item (such as a car key) during a patdown search for weapons does not warrant the seizure of that item.  The continued detention done for the purpose of investigating other non-criminal activity violates the Fourth Amendment.  An “intervening circumstance” (e.g., flight) that occurs after the illegal seizure of property does not make that property retroactively admissible via an “attenuation of the taint” theory.  

Defendant Terrance Baker, along with Walter Collin Beatty, robbed a Sprint store in Los Angeles at gunpoint, taking a bunch of ....