State v. Cooper

HUSKINS, Justice.

The sole question posed by this case is whether Officer Ray’s search of the passenger compartment of defendant’s truck following his custodial arrest violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, i.e., whether this case is within the scope of New York v. Belton, — U.S.-, 69 L.Ed. 2d 768, 101 S.Ct. 2860 (1981).

In Belton, the United States Supreme Court held that when a police officer has effected a lawful custodial arrest of an occupant of a vehicle, the officer may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, conduct a search of the…