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Brian Beasley is the Legal Adviser for the High Point Police Department in High Point, North Carolina. In order to justify his exorbitant (not really) salary and keep his officers informed of the latest changes in the law, he writes legal updates from time to time. Brian knows that officers aren’t generally enthusiastic about reading something entitled “Legal Update” so he tries to include some humorous footnotes to encourage them. Since he began writing these updates, officers from other agencies have asked to be added to the mailing list, but Brian decided that creating a blog was by far a more arrogant and geeky option.

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    Maryland v. Shatzer: Ernesto Miranda and the Fortnight Rule

    26 Feb

    Posted by Brian Beasley In Legal Update

    To download a PDF file of this update, click here

    Maryland v. Shatzer: Ernesto Miranda and the Fortnight Rule
    Legal Question of the Week
    Vol. 3, Number 4
    February 26, 2010
     
    Brian Beasley
    Student of History and Legal Adviser, HPPD

                His name was Ernesto Miranda.  Born in Arizona in 1941, he dropped out of school in the eighth grade after being convicted of his first crime.  After going in and out of reform school he joined the army but was dishonorably discharged after 15 months for many AWOL charges and charges for spying on other people’s sexual activities.

                In the early 1960’s, Miranda lived in Phoenix, Arizona1 where the Phoenix police report that he repeatedly abducted, kidnapped, raped and robbed young women.  For whatever reason, Miranda generally kidnapped his victims on the corner of 7th and Missouri Avenue2 so it is not surprising that he was eventually identified by a relative of one of his victims who saw him at that intersection.

                After his arrest and two hours of interrogation, Miranda confessed to the crimes of rape and kidnapping.  He was then taken to meet the rape victim for positive voice identification.  When Miranda was asked by the police in the victim’s presence whether this was the victim, he said, “That’s the girl.”3  The victim identified his voice as the voice of her assailant.  Miranda was later convicted of rape and kidnapping and sentenced to 20 to 30 years on both charges.  Now you know what the case is, in a minute, you’re going to hear . . . the rest of the story.4 Read More

    1. According to the Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau, it is the fifth largest city in the U.S. and home to more than 200 golf courses.  Legend has it that Phoenix got its name from Cambridge-educated pioneer Darrell Duppa, who saw the ruins and prehistoric canals of the Hohokam Indian tribe and believed another civilization would rise from the ashes.  Ernesto Miranda is not mentioned on the Phoenix Convention & Visitors Bureau webpage. ↩
    2. Remember – it’s harder to catch the smart ones. ↩
    3. See footnote 2 above. ↩
    4. For those old enough to remember Paul Harvey’s radio show, he would start out by saying “Hello Americans, I’m Paul Harvey. You know what the news is, in a minute, you’re going to hear … the rest of the story.”  I can remember listening to this on an AM only radio in my father’s Plymouth Scamp.  No FM radio, no 8-track or cassette deck, and you had to turn the knob with the dexterity of a surgeon to find the station and get it just right for the best signal.  But I digress… ↩
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    Cigar Guts: The Importance Of Articulation

    12 Feb

    Posted by Brian Beasley In Legal Update

    To download a PDF file of this update, click here

    Cigar Guts: The Importance of Articulation
    Legal Question of the Week
    Vol. 3, Number 3
    February 12, 2010

    Brian Beasley
    Articulate Fellow and Legal Adviser, HPPD

                It is a dark and stormy night.1  You are a patrol officer, and you have just pulled a vehicle over for a traffic violation.  After you have completed the citation, you approach the driver to give him the ticket and return his license and registration.  As you do so, you see through the window a plastic grocery bag sticking out of the storage holder on the passenger-side door of the vehicle.  You know based on your training and experience that contraband is often found in plastic grocery bags just like this, so you casually ask the driver, “What’s in the bag?”  The driver responds, “Cigar guts.”  Based on that same training and experience, you know that it is not uncommon for marijuana users to empty the tobacco out of a cigar and replace it with marijuana for smoking.  You can’t think of any other reasons why someone would go to the trouble to “gut a cigar.”  You are desperately hoping that Cigar is not the last name of the guy your traffic offender just murdered.

                The question is this:  do you have probable cause to search the vehicle?2 Read More

    1. “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”  This king of run-on sentences is the beginning of Paul Clifford, an 1830 novel by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton.  I haven’t read it, and based on that first sentence I don’t plan on doing so.  I use this phrase as a tribute to Snoopy, who always started this way when attempting to write the next great American novel.  That was back when Peanuts was a daily comic strip and not just a Christmas special. ↩
    2. Before we answer this question, I would feel guilty if I didn’t point out that Edward Bulwer-Lytton was also the writer that gave us the line, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”  Much more direct and to the point, which actually ties back in to the topic of this legal update. ↩
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