State v. Davenport

In this criminal case, defendant appeals the trial court’s judgment convicting him of unlawful possession of methamphetamine. ORS 475.894. On appeal, defendant assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained as a result of a law enforcement officer’s warrantless removal of a small object from defendant’s pocket. The parties dispute whether the officer’s removal of the object was justified by the officer-safety exception to the warrant requirement. For the reasons explained below, we conclude that it was not, and, therefore, we reverse and remand.

We review…