Police obtained a warrant to search a single-family residence for illegal amphetamines and equipment used in the
Question:
Police obtained a warrant to search a single-family residence for “illegal amphetamines and equipment used in the manufacture of same.” The warrant also authorized the search of the person of Harry Hampton, described in the warrant as a white male, 32 years of age, 6 ft. 2 in., and 225 lbs. When police arrived at the scene, one officer began to search Hampton. When that search yielded contraband, another officer detained a second man sitting on the porch (he was later identified as Jimmy Jaffers). The officer subjected Jaffers to a pat-down search.
No weapons were discovered on Jaffers’s person, but the officer, having felt a “suspicious lump” in Jaffers’s front pants pocket, retrieved a plastic bag of capsules that later proved to be illegal amphetamines. In a pretrial motion, Jaffers’s counsel moves to suppress the contraband, arguing that his client was the victim of an unreasonable search. Is Jaffers likely to prevail in this contention? Why or why not?
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