The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Barrios-Moriera, 872 F.2d 12 (2nd Cir. 1989):
We now turn to the final limitation which requires that the officer have probable cause to believe that the item seized was of a criminal nature and constituted evidence of a crime. Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. at 326, 107 S.Ct. at 1153; Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. at 741-42, 103 S.Ct. at 1542-43. Of the three plain view conditions this is the only one that presents a close question in this appeal. Probable cause is a flexible, common sense standard that "merely requires that the facts available to the officers would 'warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief' that certain items may be contraband ... or useful as evidence of a crime; it does not
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