State v. Kenneth M. Sobczak, 2013 WI 52, affirming published court of appeals decision; case activity; majority opinion by Justice Gableman; Chief Justice Abrahamson and Justice Bradley dissent. In a significant expansion of the third-party consent doctrine, the supreme court holds that a weekend guest may grant consent to police to enter her host’s home… Read more
1. Consent
Question presented: Proper interpretation of Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 126 S.Ct. 1515, 164 L.Ed.2d 208 (2006), specifically whether a defendant must be personally present and objecting when police officers ask a co-tenant for consent to conduct a warrantless search or whether a defendant’s previously-stated objection, while physically present, to a warrantless search is… Read more
State v. Royce Markel Wheeler, 2013 WI App 53; case activity Police went to a duplex in response to domestic abuse complaint from what they believed was the lower unit, with the caller saying she had been assaulted and was bleeding. (¶¶2, 4-6). After officers spent some 20 minutes knocking on the duplex’s common front… Read more
State v. Antoine Lamont Massey, 2012AP1124-CR, District 1, 3/5/13; court of appeals decision (not recommended for publication); case activity A daughter of the leaseholder had both actual and apparent authority to consent to a search of the apartment, including the back bedroom in which drugs were found, applying, among other cases, State v. Tomlinson, 2002 WI… Read more
State v. Daniel Cervantes, 2011AP1858-CR, District 1, 2/12/13; court of appeals decision (not recommended for publication); case activity The police lacked probable cause to arrest Cervantes when he opened the door of his apartment (¶¶10-16); there were neither exigent circumstances nor community caretaker grounds for the police to enter Cervantes’s apartment following his arrest to do… Read more
State v. Derik J. Wantland, 2013 WI App 36, petition for review granted 11/21/13; case activity It was not unreasonable for the police to search a briefcase found in a vehicle during a traffic stop after the driver consented to a search of the car and the passenger did not unequivocally assert ownership of the… Read more
State v. Robert Edwin Burkhardt, 2009AP2174-CR, District 1/4, 12/6/12 court of appeals decision (not recommended for publication); case activity Search & Seizure – Consent Consent to search isn’t vitiated by nonpretextual threat to obtain a search warrant: ¶16 … (I)t is well established that, “[t]hreatening to obtain a search warrant does not vitiate consent if ‘the… Read more
Village of Menomonee Falls v. Timothy E. Rotruck, 2012AP1024-FT, District 2, 9/1, District 2, 9/19/12 court of appeals decision (1-judge, ineligible for publication); case activity Concededly proper traffic stop; after citations issued, officer sought and obtained consent to search vehicle, resulting in seizure of contraband – court concludes that, under the circumstances, traffic stop had… Read more
