The People v. Graham Reid

OPINION OF THE COURT

Smith, J.

The issue here is whether a search of a driver by the police officer who stopped his car was “incident” to the driver’s arrest. We hold that it was not, because the record shows that, although probable cause to arrest the driver existed before the search, the driver would not have been arrested if the search had not produced evidence of a crime.

I

Officer Jacob Merino testified at a suppression hearing that he followed the car defendant was driving while it crossed double lines into a lane of oncoming traffic, swerved in and out of its lane without signaling, and…