People v. Howell

Opinion

FILES, P. J.

After a court trial, defendant was convicted of possession of heroin (Health & Saf. Code, § 11500). He is appealing from the judgment. We are called upon to decide whether the arrest of an intoxicated motorist was unlawful because the arresting officer could not determine the cause of the intoxication and cited an inapplicable code section as the justification for the arrest. We have concluded that, under the circumstances shown here, the arrest and the search of defendant’s person incidental to the arrest were lawful, but the judgment must be reversed because defendant’s…