A junior contacted the high school vice-principal to report that another junior student, Richard Dickens, was selling marijuana in the school parking lot. The vice-principal had received reports that Dickens was involved with drugs before from a senior who had provided the vice-principal with reliable information about illegal activities of other students in the past.
The vice-principal then called Dickens into his office and asked him to empty his pockets. Dickens was carrying $230 cash in small bills and a piece of paper with a telephone pager number on it. The vice-principal knew that drug dealers often use pagers. The vice-principal called school security who searched Dickens’s locker but found nothing.
When the vice-principal told Dickens they would have to search his car, which was parked in the school lot, Dickens refused. After speaking to Dickens’s mother by phone, Dickens turned over the keys. The school officials found a pager and a notebook inside the car. The notebook had names with dollar amounts written next to the names. They opened the locked trunk of the car and found a locked briefcase. Dickens first said he didn’t know who owned the briefcase; then he said a friend owned it and that he did not know the combination. The school security officers pried it open and discovered 80.2 grams of marijuana. Police were called and Dickens was arrested.
Dickens claims that the searches of his official person, his locker, car, and locked briefcase were unconstitutional. Decide if the searches were constitutional and give your reasons.
2. the term trace evidence is usually very loosely defined. However, it most often is applied to minute or microscopic bits of materials that are not immediately apparent to even a trained investigator.
For this DB discussion, imagine the following scenario:
A person breaks into a locked vehicle by prying open a ventilation window. The suspect then enters the vehicle, opens the glove box and center console; and removes several items.
List the possible trace evidence that an investigator should look for.
