United States v. Samuel Lee Clark

BOGUE, Senior District Judge.

The United States appeals from the district court’s order granting Samuel Lee Clark’s motion to suppress statements he made while seated in the backseat of a patrol car, and cocaine obtained as a result of those statements. Because we hold that the appel-lee did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in statements made while seated in a police car, we reverse.

FACTS

On March 12, 1992, defendant Samuel Lee Clark was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Jerome Mozee. An Iowa state trooper, Mark Snyders, stopped them because the vehicle’s windows appeared to be…