What started as a unremarkable traffic stop consonant has quickly escalated into a civil right case in a Florida courtroom after a man was put behind bars this week for fail to unlock his speech sound .
William Montanez was give 180 Day in poky by a judge after he was ask to unlock two disjoined phones seized from him by constabulary . Montanez told the court of law that he could n’t recall the parole , so the judge found him in polite contempt and threw him in jail , harmonise to Fox 13 Newsin Tampa Bay , Florida .
The strangest part about Montanez ’s predicament is that it start with a traffic point . allot to anemergency writfiled by Montanez ’s lawyer , he was pulled over by police on June 21 for not properly yielding while pulling out of a driveway . The officers make the stop ask to search his car , which he defy , so the constabulary brought in a drug - sniffing bounder .
It ’s worth noting that theemergency writsays the dogtooth unit was contacted before constabulary talk to Montanez during the plosive , which seems a scrap funny . In 2015 , the US Supreme Court ’s ruling inRodriguez v. United Statesmade clear that police are not to reverse traffic stops into investigations of other potential infraction . Police have to have reason to believe another criminal offense has been committed in order of magnitude to enquire further , and decline to allow jurisprudence enforcement to search your car is not a valid grounds for misgiving .
The bounder discovered small amount of money of mourning band ( about 4.5 grams ) and THC rock oil , which Montanez admit belonged to him . The police force also discover a hide handgun , which purportedly belong to his mom , and two cellphone . When practice of law enforcement asked Montanez to unlock the phones — plain after seeing a schoolbook message that learn “ OMG did they regain it ” on the sieve — he denied the request .
The police force got asearch warrantfor the devices , claiming that they contain evidence of “ Possession of Cannabis Less Than 20 gramme ” and “ Possession of Drug Paraphernalia”—both of which Montanez already intromit to , which makes it undecipherable why the cops still want to look the phone to prove the charges .
It was that guarantee that brought Montanez to court , where the evaluator asked him to unlock the phones , which he again refused — or merely could n’t do because he did n’t remember the passcodes for the twist . Now he ’ll pass nearly the next six months in jail for not allowing police to jab through his phones for evidence they do n’t seem to need .
Montanez ’s lawyer , Patrick Leduc , charge an hand brake petition to dispute the judge ’s contempt ruling and lift take with the warrant , but the situation is passably all-fired pasty . The police did go through the mental process of induce a guarantee to look the phone as they are hypothesize to do , but it seems the lot that direct up to that point were questionable at best .
Leduc also allege his client ’s vitrine should do as a word of advice to everyone , per Fox 13 News :
“ If they collar you for anything — whether it ’s drug , guns , you name it — and an electronic twist is nearby , they can get a search imprimatur and search it . And if you do n’t supply that information to search it , to unlock , because you require to keep the information private , we ’ll put you in jail , ” said Leduc .
[ Fox 13 News , Techdirt ]
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