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Benchmarks is always on the lookout for those novel search and seizure cases that help point the way for criminal defense attorneys. Last week, the Oregon Court of Appeals reached the somewhat counterintuitive conclusion that police can't treat the covered bed of a pickup truck the same as the trunk of a car.
The beneficiary of that decision is Jay Lee Hanna. A Eugene, Ore., police officer investigating property crimes saw Hanna place suspected stolen items in the back of his Dodge pickup truck.
Interest piqued, the officer waited for Hanna to commit a traffic offense before initiating a stop. The officer place Hanna under arrest after determining that he was driving without a valid license and that he hadn't kept up with his sex offender reporting requirements.
With its driver in handcuffs, police decided to tow and impound Hanna's pickup truck. That led officers to conduct an inventory search of the vehicle pursuant to the Eugene Police Department's policy.
The officers struck gold when they searched the cab of the truck, finding a glass pipe with a white residue that turned out to be methamphetamine. The inventory search of the...