If you have been charged with a crime as a result of a police search, you may be wondering if there is anything you can do to contest the search. In particular, “plain view” searches are a special class of searches and have their own rules as to whether they are conducted lawfully. A New Hampshire criminal defense attorney may be able to answer your questions about the plain view search as it pertains to your case. Here is some general information:

A “plain view” search occurs when the police spot an object and have probable cause to believe the object is the instrumentality of a crime. If so, they may seize the object without a warrant.  Three conditions must be met: the police must lawfully reach the vantage point from which they can see the object, they must have lawful access to the incriminating object, and it must be immediately apparent that the object is incriminating. “Immediately apparent” here means that viewing the object without further searching gives the police probable cause to believe it is contraband. For example, they cannot turn over the object to look at the serial number in a “plain view” search. Of course, the entire search must also be conducted within Fourth Amendment guidelines.

If your police seized your property or arrested you on the basis of a plain view search, your New Hampshire criminal defense attorney might be able to challenge it in two ways: (1) your attorney might challenge how the police got into the position to see the items, if they entered an area they were now allowed to be, or if they looked into a car that was stopped illegally; or (2) your attorney might challenge whether the incriminating nature of the evidence was immediately apparent, if the police inspected it intrusively, or if they conducted further investigation after seizing it—this would make the search not a “plain view” search. In one case, the Supreme Court ruled that an officer who felt a hard object in an arrestee’s pocket, and knew that it was not a weapon, could not remove the object on suspicion that it was drugs.