Fanny pack search ruled unconstitutional

A state appeals court said Thursday that Orange County sheriff’s deputies making an arrest needed a warrant before searching a fanny pack that contained a gun. A three-judge panel of the 6th District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Jamari Jean, who sought to suppress evidence of the gun and ammunition in the fanny pack. The ruling said Orange County deputies had a warrant for Jean’s arrest on charges of aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm and apprehended him after he rode up to his home on a bicycle. After Jean was handcuffed, deputies took the locked fanny pack, found a key and opened it. Jean was later convicted of possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon, Thursday’s ruling said. An Orange County circuit judge denied Jean’s motion to suppress the evidence. But while deputies had a warrant to arrest Jean on other charges, the appeals court said it needed a warrant to search the fanny pack. It pointed to the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures, and legal precedents. While exceptions allow warrantless searches in certain circumstances, such as when officers’ safety is at risk, the ruling said the Jean case did not meet such tests. “The search of Jean’s fanny pack occurred after Jean had already been totally secured and separated from the fanny pack such that there was no longer any possibility that he could access it in order to obtain a weapon to harm the officers. … Applying the precedent of the United States Supreme Court as we must, the officers that arrested Jean were not permitted to search his fanny pack under the facts of this case without a warrant,” said the ruling, written by Judge Joshua Mize and joined by Judges Mary Alice Nardella and Richard Orfinger. The ruling reversed Jean’s conviction on the gun-possession charge.