North Dakota v. Valles
Annotate this CaseJoseph Valles appealed a criminal judgment and an order denying his motion to suppress. Valles conditionally pled guilty, preserving the right to appeal the order denying his motion to suppress. Valles argues his cell phone was searched without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The State argues the cell phone was abandoned and therefore no warrant was required to search the phone. We reverse the suppression order and criminal judgment and remand to allow Valles to withdraw his conditional plea of guilty. A cell phone was found in a Devils Lake apartment parking lot, and taken to the police station. Officer John Mickelson guessed the unlock pattern by trying patterns convenient to right-handed users and quickly unlocked the phone. Officer Mickelson then opened the photos application and looked at the stored photos, intending to identify the owner from “selfies” and other photos stored in the phone. He was able to identify both Valles and Jessica Bear from photos and a video. Officer Mickelson knew there was a restraining order against Valles from Bear. Officer Mickelson also saw in the photos what appeared to be drugs and drug paraphernalia. From the photos on the phone, police obtained a search warrant; while executing the warrant, officers found marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia. Valles conditionally pled guilty, preserving the right to appeal the order denying his motion to suppress. Valles argued his cell phone was searched without a warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The State argued the cell phone was abandoned and therefore no warrant was required to search the phone. The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed the suppression order and criminal judgment and remanded to allow Valles to withdraw his conditional plea of guilty. In finding the cell phone to be abandoned, the district court misapplied the law by shifting onto Valles the State’s burden to justify a warrantless search.
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