Can a defendant's electronic device be searched by a law enforcement officer while he is still on probation?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Gordon, E068521 (Cal. App. 2018):

Moreover, when defendant's original sentence was imposed pursuant to a negotiated disposition, he became subject to a warrantless search condition, which authorized a search of his person, property, vehicle, and home. When that condition was imposed, it was broad enough to embrace electronic devices like the phone defendant used to take a picture of the victim following the crash. Then, while defendant was still on probation, "there was a change of circumstance in that the ECPA established a new requirement that an electronic search probation condition must be clear and unambiguous. The fact that the probation search condition did not have the same meaning or impact that it had when the original sentence was announced demonstrates that the trial court had jurisdiction to modify the conditions of [defendant's] probation to include an express electronic search condition." (People v. Guzman (2018) 23 Cal.App.5th 53, 60 (Guzman).) The additional electronic device search condition is no more intrusive than the condition imposed in Los Angeles County requiring defendant to submit to immediate search of person, home, and property by a law enforcement officer.

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