A probation search conducted where the police officer is aware of the condition before the search may dissipate any taint flowing from the stop preceding the search. Police stopped appellant after he failed to signal before making a turn from a dedicated turn lane. Prior to the stop, police recognized appellant and remembered that he was on searchable probation. Police searched appellant and found a loaded handgun. In a suppression hearing appellant argued that the stop was illegal because no turn signal is required from a dedicated turn lane, and the evidence as to the gun should have been suppressed because the search was the product of this unlawful detention. The trial court agreed that no signal was required, but found that appellant’s probation condition justified the search. The appellate court did not consider the legality of the stop, and, instead, concluded that even if there was any illegality in the stop, it was attenuated by appellant’s probation search condition. (People v. Brendlin (2008) 45 Cal.4th 262.) Although the search occurred after police observed the turning vehicle, it did not occur until police recognized appellant as a person subject to a search condition. This condition supplied legal authorization to search that was completely independent of circumstances leading to the stop. Further, police did not act in an arbitrary, capricious, or harassing manner in effecting the stop.
Case Summaries