Search and Seizure – Consent; scope

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Search and Seizure – Consent; scope

Where a truck driver volunteered that the officers could search before they asked for consent, the driver consented to a search of the entire truck and trailer.

“Here, Trooper Miller asked Saucedo if he had any weapons, cannabis or cocaine in his truck or trailer, and Saucedo answered ‘no.’ At that point, Saucedo volunteered that Miller could search, even before Miller requested permission. Trooper Miller specifically asked Saucedo if he could search his truck and trailer, and Saucedo answered, ‘yes.’ So Saucedo was well aware that Miller was looking for drugs. And Saucedo gave his consent to search without any express limitation. Thus, his consent allowed Miller to search inside compartments in the tractor-trailer, including in the sleeper area, where drugs could be concealed. This necessarily included the hidden compartment, which one could reasonably think might, and in fact did, contain drugs.

If Saucedo didn’t want the hidden compartment to be searched, he could have limited the scope of the search to which he consented. See id. (stating that one may ‘delimit as he chooses the scope of the search to which he consents. But if his consent would reasonably be understood to extend to a particular container, the Fourth Amendment provides no grounds for requiring a more explicit authorization.’). He did not. A reasonable person would have understood that by consenting to a search of his tractor and trailer for drugs, Saucedo agreed to permit a search of any compartments or containers therein that might contain drugs, including the hidden compartment where the cocaine was ultimately found. See, e.g., id. at 251.”

Affirmed.

11-2457 U.S. v. Saucedo

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Mills, J., Tinder, J.

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