State v. Byrd

¶1 This case concerns the search of an arrestee’s purse incident to her arrest. The decisive question is whether the search of Lisa Byrd’s purse was a search of her person. Because the purse was in her lap when she was arrested, it was an article of her person under the long standing “time of arrest” rule. Neither the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 129 S. Ct. 1710, 173 L. Ed. 2d 485 (2009), nor our decision in State v. Valdez, 167 Wn.2d 761, 224 P.3d 751 (2009), restricts searches of the arrestee’s person. If the arrest was lawful, the arresting…