State v. Lawrence

Defendant appeals his conviction for unlawful possession of a controlled substance, ORS 475.992, assigning error to the trial court’s denial of his pretrial motion to suppress LSD tablets seized from his property 1 during the booking process at the county jail after he was taken into protective civil custody for public intoxication. ORS 426.460. 2 The issue is whether the police may, without a warrant, in a noncriminal, nonemergency situation open a closed container seized from the intoxicated person at the time he is booked in at the holding facility, when the purpose of doing so is to…