DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
211191P.pdf 04/01/2022 United States v. Jose Perez
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 21-1191
U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota - Eastern
[PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Gruender and Kobes, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - Criminal law. The magistrate judge correctly applied the
reasonable-suspicion standard in determining whether defendant's car was
impermissibly seized under the totality of the circumstances; the
trooper's decision to impound the car was guided by the Highway Patrol's
policy and the decision was made on the basis of something other than the
suspicion of evidence of criminal activity; a second inventory search was
permissible because it was done in accordance with the general police
routine of taking an accounting of items in police custody to protect the
owners' property and protect the police against disputes over
unaccounted-for property; the record showed the drug dog used in the case
had the requisite accuracy and reliability to establish probable cause for
a search of the vehicle; the record does not support defendant's claim
that the dog's handler impermissibly cued her; Franks claim rejected;
taken in the context of the government's entire closing argument and the
trial evidence, a jury would not have naturally and necessarily taken the
government's remark - that defendants and his passengers had come to
Spirit Lake to sell meth - as a comment on defendant's decision not to
testify.