Sardinas

INTRODUCTION

While on parole, defendant and appellant Rolando Palmer Sardinas (defendant) was stopped and searched by the same police officer who had searched him during a traffic stop the night before. During the second search, the officer discovered rock cocaine on defendant’s person and arrested him. Prior to trial, defendant moved under Penal Code section 1538.5 to suppress the drug evidence recovered by the officer during the second search, but the trial court denied the motion. Defendant was thereafter convicted of possession for sale of cocaine base.

On appeal, defendant challenges the trial court’s ruling denying his motion to suppress, arguing that the parole search of defendant by the same officer who had searched him less than 24 hours earlier constituted harassment and violated defendant’s right under the Fourth Amendment to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. We hold that although searches of a parolee can be constitutionally unreasonable, substantial evidence supports the trial court’s conclusion that the parole search of defendant was not conducted to harass or for any other arbitrary reason, but rather for a legitimate law enforcement…