In forfeiture proceedings involving cash that was suspected to be connected to drugs, district court's grant of defendant's motion to suppress dog-sniff test evidence is reversed and remanded where: 1) the police officers' suspicion that a briefcase contained drugs or money associated with drugs was reasonable; 2) detention of the briefcase was reasonable; and 3) officer's unlawful search of the briefcase fell under the inevitable discovery doctrine where the government obtained an independent legal justification for conducting a search which led to the discovery of the evidence and officers inevitably would have sought the warrant and conducted a lawful search.
Read US v. Marrocco, No. 07-3101
Appellate Information
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.
Decided August 24, 2009
Judges
Before Easterbrook, Chief Judge, and Ripple and Rovner, Circuit Judges
Opinion by Ripple, Circuit Judge