California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Wolfgang, 193 Cal.Rptr.3d 256, 240 Cal.App.4th 1268 (Cal. App. 2015):
People v. Hill (2004) 118 Cal.App.4th 1344, 13 Cal.Rptr.3d 719 is instructive. In that case, the defendant and his girlfriend were suspects in a burglary. Police located the girlfriend's car in the parking lot of a motel, went to her room and asked her for permission to search it. She refused. (Id. at pp. 13471348, 13 Cal.Rptr.3d 719.) The police officer could see that the defendant was in the room and asked to speak with him. The defendant came outside to speak with the officer. In the meantime, the officer had radioed the police dispatcher and asked whether the defendant or his girlfriend were on probation. The dispatcher erroneously told the officer no. While waiting for a detective to arrive to write a search warrant, the dispatcher called the officer again and this time erroneously told him that defendant was on active parole. Apparently, the dispatcher misread the printout. (Id. at p. 1348, 13 Cal.Rptr.3d 719.) Relying on the misreport of the defendant's parole status, the officer searched the motel room and found property stolen in the burglary. Two days later, the officer found out that the defendant's parole had expired, but that he was on probation with a search clause. (Ibid. )
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