you may have seen this video that was posted on youtube
another west virginia case that's now winding its way through the criminal justice system
and it has to do with a guy who i believe was from michigan who was driving through west virginia
on his way to i think it was pennsylvania in an rv and he broke down while in west virginia
he's in a rv campground the cops show up and he asks for a warrant they don't have don't
want to give him a warrant or they don't have a warrant and you see what happens in the video just
briefly this is from the real news network who did a really good video on this i check out their
youtube channel and they go into the funding of this small town police department this is milton
west virginia police department that's in cabell county west virginia that's over near huntington
west virginia and this is just one of these tiny departments that's generating a huge amount of
revenue with their basically what appears to be for-profit policing that's right eight
immature hemp plants which is why police in west virginia decided that cody was such a threat to
the community that they had to break into his home without a warrant as you can see in the video we
are showing now police insisted that he let them inside when cody fully aware of his constitutional
rights asked to see the warrant police kept telling him they would get it soon let's listen
so you're going to break my stuff violently anyway
look at my hands are right here all i'm doing is recording this
that's it i just don't understand why and what's going on
i need to i need to have a lawyer president
for a warrant why not this can be done completely peacefully i just need to see a warrant first
why are you guys breaking my stuff i don't i haven't seen a warrant yet
right now i look like i'm surrounded by a bunch of wolves trying to attack me okay so as soon
as i get a warrant i'll open the door what's the issue well here we go this is what they're after
just so people know the real truth
whoa whoa open the door i don't understand why why you guys are being so violent towards me
that's all yes you are you just smashed my whole window in but this is an interesting video not
because the cops are busting in without a warrant trying to get a couple hemp plants or marijuana
plants it doesn't even matter at this point but the question really pops into people's heads
and really pops into my head as well do the police need a warrant to search an rv or to come into an
nrv such as this in a campground and arrest the guy inside or search the rv or both do they need a
warrant well like many things in the law of fourth amendment search and seizure it's not that simple
you know generally the fourth amendment requires the police to obtain a warrant before
a search but there's a well-established exception the automobile exception
see for instance the supreme court case of carroll versus united states from 1925 under
that exception quote if a car is readily mobile and probable cause exists to believe it contains
contraband the fourth amendment thus permits the police to search that vehicle without more
so once the police have probable cause which generally they need to search but usually
in a house will always in a house they need not just probable cause but also a search warrant
but this is something in between an rv so once they have probable cause this is with the car now
the automobile exception they may search quote every part of the vehicle and its contents that
may conceal the object of the search so in 1985 the us supreme court looked at the case of well
what about an rv is as uh you know it's surprising it took from 1925 with the automobile exception
all the way to 1985 before this issue made its way up to the supreme court but that's why uh the
law of search and seizure is highly confusing so 1985 california versus kearney is the case
the supreme court held that an rv or a mobile home on the facts presented in
that case anyways was more characteristic of an automobile than of a fixed residence
so the court looked at the nature of the location where the vehicle was discovered in that case
but only to ascertain whether that vehicle itself was really a movable vessel or a fixed residence
so the court referenced quote a place not regularly used for residential purposes from
which the police would be less likely to infer that the object was residential in nature and
that served as a guidepost to determine whether or not the object encountered was a vehicle
or a residence confused all right so basically to sum up the the holding of california versus
carney was basically that you know was the rv on a public road or was it situated such
that it's a reasonable to conclude that the rv was not being used as a residence
if it's on a public road or if it's not reasonable to conclude that it's being used as a residence
then no search warrant has required only probable cause is required then the police can come in
assuming they have probable costs so looking at it more carefully if you go through that case what
did the court really look look at to determine so it's a gray area it doesn't really help that much
is a warrant needed well these are the things really that should be looked at and i don't know
that the answers are are really known yet in this particular case i mean i know the the police know
them but i actually pulled the case file and there there was hardly any information in there to to uh
there was no information as to why the cops were there in the first place who called them with the
suspect suspected uh um reasonable suspicion of criminal activity was what probable cause was none
of that's contained in the court file of course kind of par for the course so not knowing any of
these things these are general things that that one would look at was the rv in the particular
case readily mobile now i know in that case in this particular case apparently it broke down
is that obvious from the outside were the was it sitting on blocks i don't know but was it readily
mo mobile so if there wasn't an immediate search and seizure assuming that's why they were there
could the vehicle have been quickly moved beyond the reach of the police
also was the vehicle licensed to quote operate on public streets and subject to inspection as
a motor vehicle and we have inspections in west virginia i know it was an out-of-out-of-state
vehicle so it may or may not have inspections where it was from
was the vehicle so situated that an objective observer would conclude that it was being used as
a residence but not as a vehicle well it wasn't on a public road it appears to have been in a
campground how long had it been in that campground again was it sitting on blocks was there
all sorts of camping materials brought outside did it have like a little front porch set up
were there shades on the the windows or like a sun blocker along the front sometimes you see i don't
know these are all facts that that could general facts that could you know bring it out of the gray
area one way or the other third really the last thing that one must recognize is that whether
or not there was a search warrant whether or not a search warrant was required or rather even if
a search warrant was not required because it was objectively more like a vehicle than a residence
was the search that actually occurred still reasonable because
even under the automobile exception the search still has to be reasonable under the
circumstances so was the search that actually occurred otherwise reasonable was it something
that would have been approved by a neutral judge had they applied for a search warrant so
that doesn't really help much but that is the answer there's no black and white
i'm holding that yes an rv in an rv the cops still have to have a search warrant to search it
and it makes sense that the the supreme court wouldn't have done that because then you know
actual criminals could just drive around an rv and deal drugs or whatever they're doing out of an rv
and they wouldn't be subject to search which i'm not saying uh you know a search
warrant should be required but that's why obviously the court never never held that
so that's the bright uh the uh gray area of you know that that corner of fourth amendment search
and seizure law i'll try to follow you know what's happening in this case in campbell county and the
family did reach out to me that's why i pulled the documents so i'm trying to look into it
he has a public defender he's still sitting in jail and last i heard he hadn't gotten any
calls back the family hadn't gotten any calls back just sort of riding in jail
it's unfortunate i'll i'll uh keep following this and and and you know maybe do an update
video when i find out more details such as why the cops were there and all that thanks for watching