State v. Okeke

The issue before us is whether evidence found in searching the purse of a person taken involuntarily by police to a detoxification facility may be used to convict the person of a crime.

Defendant was a passenger in a car stopped for a traffic violation. A deputy sheriff detected the odor of alcohol on defendant’s breath. When defendant argued with the officer and repeatedly demanded to know when the driver and passengers could leave, the officer took her into custody and delivered her to Hooper Memorial Center for Alcoholism Intervention (Hooper Center), a facility operated by a nonprofit…