4A 4C 2006: Looking Inside Bicycle Handlebar Is A Search Incident To Arrest

UNITED STATES v. CURRENCE, 446 F.3d 554 (4th Cir. 2006), No. 05-4894, 2006 U.S.App. LEXIS 11090, on appeal from USDC-VAED, before Chief USCJ Wilkins and USCJs Williams, Shedd, opinion by Shedd, filed 04 May 2006.

LONG STORY SHORT: After arresting a person riding a bicycle, police may remove the end cap from the bicycle handlebars and look inside as a search incident to arrest. Binding in MD, NC, SC, VA, WV.

FACTS: A confidential informant contacted Richmond, VA police and relayed a detailed description of a man on a bicycle selling drugs at a particular street corner. Detectives approached the location and found Defendant, who matched the description. Defendant submitted to a frisk, which revealed only money, but when Defendant identified himself, detectives discovered an outstanding arrest warrant. While Defendant was under arrest pending confirmation of the warrant, a detective, aware that drug dealers sometimes hide drugs there, slid the end cap off of Defendant's bicycle's right handlebar without using tools. Inside the hollow handlebar were baggies containing a substance that looked like, and later tested to be, crack cocaine. Defendant, who remained close to his bicycle the whole time, then made incriminating statements.

PROCEDURE: The United States indicted Defendant in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute in a school zone. Defendant moved to suppress the crack and his incriminating statements, arguing that a warrantless search incident to arrest could not include the inside of the handlebar. The trial court analogized the minimal disassembly of the end cap to a search of a car trunk, which is not within an arrestee's area of immediate control, and ruled the search unreasonable because its scope exceeded the purpose of searches incident to arrest. MOTION TO SUPPRESS GRANTED. The United States appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

DECISION: Searches incident to arrest are an exception to the general warrant requirement, because arrestees might have weapons on or near them and also might want to hide or destroy evidence. Such searches may accompany any arrest, regardless of whether any particularized suspicion exists, and can include open or closed spaces or containers within the arrestee's lungeable area.

Defendant's arrest was reasonable as pursuant to an outstanding warrant, and the search of his handlebar was substantially contemporaneous with the arrest. His bicycle remained within his immediate area, but the question was whether removing the end cap and looking inside the structure was reasonable. The Fourth Circuit ruled that a detective's pulling off the easily removed end cap was less like opening a car trunk and more like opening a simple closed container such as a drawer or bag, which is allowed even if the container is locked. Though the Fourth Circuit cautioned that searches of all parts of a bicycle incident to arrest would not henceforth always be reasonable, under the specific facts of the case, the minimal intrusion into Defendant's handlebar was not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. GRANT OF SUPPRESSION REVERSED; cause remanded for further proceedings.

EDITORIAL: Good show. Also a bit of education, for me at least. Who'd a thunk to put your stash in the handlebar? I'd be more afraid of having it slip down the handlebar and then having to cut the handlebar open. I guess cocaine is more valuable than your average handlebar, though.