1st Circuit: SEIZURE IS LEGAL AFTER SUSPECT TRIES TO FLEE
Organized Crime Digest, Sep 28, 2007
Police seizure of evidence from a suspect who refuses to submit to questioning and flees is legal, ruled the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court said the suspect’s refusal to cooperate demonstrated that he was not “seized” in the context of the 4th Amendment, and the flight created reasonable cause for pursuit and a search.
Had Curtis Holloway remained in the hallway and refused to answer questions or submit to a search, police lacked reasonable suspicion.
‘The record makes it abundantly clear that Holloway never submitted to the officers’ show of authority,” said the court “Holloway verbally rejected the officers’ instructions before escalating his resistance by shoving [a bystander] into the officers and trying to flee. Such conduct does not manifest an intent to submit to the officers’ authority.”
The couit said the officers followed Holloway and legally seized a gun he discarded before his arrest, and ammunition in his pocket.
Inf.: U.S. v. Holloway, 05-2229, 1st Circ., Aug
attracting abundance
Dec 19, 2009
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