Aguiar v. Superior Court
Peter Paul Aguiar, charged with illegally cultivating marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale, seeks a writ of mandate compelling respondent superior court to suppress evidence of incriminating text messages found on his wife’s cell phone. Police officers had removed the phone from a purse belonging to Claudia Paola Villarroel, Aguiar’s wife, while they were attempting to serve an arrest warrant for Aguiar at the couple’s home. The superior court denied the motion, finding Aguiar had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his wife’s belongings.
The court’s analysis was incomplete. If the officers saw the purse in plain view while lawfully in Aguiar’s house or pursuant to a lawful search of the house, the search of the purse did not invade any protected privacy interest of Aguiar’s. However, if the purse and cell phone were discovered only as a result of an unlawful search of his home, the fruits of that search should have been suppressed. Because the court erroneously ruled Aguiar did not suffer a Fourth Amendment violation whether or not the purse was the product of an illegal search of his home, we grant Aguiar’s petition for writ of mandate and direct the superior court to vacate its order denying his motion to suppress and to determine in the first instance whether the cell phone was discovered lawfully or as part of an illegal search of Aguiar’s home.
Comments on Aguiar v. Superior Court