Ohio Criminal Appeals Lawyer Blog

In a 4 to 3 vote (which is often the score in criminal appeals decided by the Ohio Supreme Court lately), the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that "[t]he warrantless search of data within a cell phone seized incident to a lawful arrest is prohibited by the Fourth Amendment when the search is unnecessary for the safety of law-enforcement officers and there are no exigent circumstances."

Read the decision in the case of State v. Antwaun Smith, 2009-Ohio-6426, here and watch the oral argument here.

Today the Ohio Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal by the Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office. Darnell Jones had been convicted of possession of between 100 and 500 grams of cocaine and he was sentenced by Judge A. J. Wagner to 4 years in prison and about $3,500.00 in mandatory fines. He pleaded "no contest" after his motion to suppress had been denied by the trial court.

On appeal to the Second District Court of Appeals, Jones had his conviction and sentence reversed and the case was remanded to the trial court on January 9, 2009, 2009-Ohio-61. But the Montgomery County Prosecutor filed a Notice of Appeal in the Supreme Court of Ohio on February 25, 2009. The Ohio Supreme Court hears a case like this only if it decides to, and it decided to hear this one on June 30, 2009. Oral argument was held in the Ohio Supreme Court on November 3, 2009, and you can see that argument by clicking here.

Today the Ohio Supreme Court decided by a 4-3 vote that it was mistaken in accepting the appeal. Therefore the decision of the Second District Court of Appeals stands. The Second District Court of Appeals, as you can read by clicking here, decided that police could not look into the Aldi shopping bag Jones had left in the motel room without probable cause or a search warrant. The Court of Appeals ruled that the cocaine in the bag should have been suppressed by Judge Wagner at Jones' suppression hearing. Police saw Jones walk out of the motel room with the bag and then Jones put the bag back into the room. The Second District decided the police could enter the motel room but could not look into the bag.

Supreme Court Justices Lundberg Stratton, O'Connor, and Cupp, disagree with the reasoning of the Court of Appeals so they would have heard this case in the Ohio Supreme Court to make it "right." But as Justices Moyer and O'Donnell pointed out during oral argument, this case did not raise any new issues of law the Supreme Court had to address and the prosecutor agreed. The role of the Ohio Supreme Court is not to "fix" what it thinks the Courts of Appeals do "wrong." And that is really what the Montgomery County Prosecutor wanted the Supreme Court to do here. Right or wrong, the decision of the Second District Court of Appeals in this case stands and Darnell Jones walks.

Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the trial court which overruled the defendant's motion to suppress evidence.  The Court of Appeals found that the defendant was arrested and the arrest was not supported by probable cause.  Therefore, any contraband found after the illegal arrest should have been suppressed.  Click here for the decision.

Upon remand, the State did not pursue prosecution.

So said Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals.  Police collected drugs and drug paraphernalia in a dorm room after Resident Assistants discovered marijuana after a search they were conducting before Homecoming.  While the search by the Resident Assistants did not implicate the Fourth Amendment (since they were acting solely as private citizens), the police violated the Fourth Amendment when they entered the dorm room without a warrant to retrieve the contraband the Resident Assistants collected.  Upon remand, the charges were dismissed by the State.  You can see the decision by clicking here.