US v. Perez, No. 22-1121 (1st Cir. 2023)
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.
UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Gilbert PEREZ, Defendant, Appellant.
No. 22-1121
Decided: December 28, 2023
Before Barron, Chief Judge, Howard and Montecalvo, Circuit Judges.
Jamesa J. Drake, with whom Drake Law LLC was on brief, for appellant. Brian S. Kleinbord, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Darcie N. McElwee, United States Attorney, was on brief, for appellee.
The case of United States v. Gilbert Perez revolves around the appeal of Gilbert Perez, who challenged his federal drug conviction on the grounds that the District Court had wrongly denied his motion to suppress evidence obtained from a warrantless search of his backpack. Perez argued that the search did not meet the requirements of the search-incident-to-arrest exception under the Fourth Amendment.
The situation unfolded when Perez was observed acting suspiciously in a McDonald’s parking lot in Lawrence, Massachusetts. After leaving the lot with a backpack and taking a taxi, state troopers became suspicious when a large amount of cash was found in the taxi. Upon returning to the McDonald’s parking lot, Perez was approached by Trooper Jason Conant, ran away, but was eventually caught. The trooper searched the backpack, finding fentanyl and cocaine, leading to Perez’s indictment on federal drug charges.
Perez’s appeal was based on the argument that the search of his backpack violated the Fourth Amendment, contending that the precedent set in United States v. Eatherton, which justified the search, had been undermined by subsequent Supreme Court decisions. However, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the conviction, stating that the backpack was not separate from Perez at the time of arrest and thus was subject to the search-incident-to-arrest exception. The court concluded that the precedents cited by Perez did not invalidate the ruling in Eatherton, and the search was lawful.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on January 4, 2024.
