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Lifting trousers not illegal search

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

US police discovered a gun when they lifted up a suspect's baggy jeans

US police discovered a gun when they lifted up a suspect's baggy jeans

A US court has said pulling up the saggy jeans of a crime suspect is not an illegal search, even if it turns up a gun.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling came in a case that arose after a drug suspect was stopped by St Paul officers.

The St Paul Pioneer Press reported that the man's jeans fell down when he put his hands up, prompting an officer to hoist up the droopy drawers. In the process, the officer found a gun.

The man was later sentenced to five years in prison for illegally possessing a firearm.

On appeal, his lawyer argued the gun was found in an illegal search.

But the appeals court determined the officer had hoisted the trousers "presumably to conceal rather than to reveal".

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