Eastern District holds that a police ruse defeats voluntary consent to search
United States v. Jose Angel Hernandez-Pineda, 25-CR-64 (E.D. Wis. 8/25/25).
In an interesting Fourth Amendment case, the Eastern District holds that officers violated Hernandez-Peneda’s Fourth Amendment rights when they searched his apartment without a warrant and without his voluntary consent.
Although Hernandez-Peneda signed a consent to search form, he argues that whatever consent he gave was involuntary and thus invalid because the officers told him they needed to quickly search his car and apartment for a missing three-year-old. He also argues that the search conducted exceeded the scope of the consent he purportedly gave. The court agrees with Hernandez-Peneda on both points.
For more detail, see the WisLawNOW post here or the decision (link above).