State v. Beltran

I concur with the majority’s affirmance of the district court’s ruling upholding the legality of the warrant-less search. I write separately, however, because I would hold that Deputy Shawn McClay had probable cause with exigent circumstances to search Isaac Beltran’s pocket for cocaine or marijuana.

Deputy McClay was executing a search warrant issued by a judicial authority. Importantly, Beltran did not challenge the validity of the search warrant or the underlying affidavit in support of probable cause. (Inexplicably, neither the search warrant nor tire affidavit was introduced into…