Butt, Officer
[Defense Counsel]: And you did conduct a search then, is that correct? How did you come to find the drugs? [Detective Latchaw]: Well, when we – when Mr. Paulino was removed from
the vehicle and laid on the ground, his pants were already pretty much down
around his – below his butt, because I guess that’s the fad, these guys like
wearing their pants down real low , so it was just a matter of lifting up his
shorts, and – – and between his butt cheeks the drugs were – I believe one of
the detectives actually put on a pair of gloves and just spread his cheeks apart
a little bit and it was right there.
From Paulino v. Maryland
In a 4-3 decision the Maryand Court of Appeals invalidated the search of Mr. Paulino’s buttcrack and set aside his conviction. The Maryland Attorney General has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn this decision:
The Maryland attorney general’s office will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that said a Baltimore County police officer acted unreasonably by searching the buttocks cheeks of a suspected drug dealer in a public place.
“There are differing opinions regarding what constitutes a strip search and under what circumstances a strip or a reach-in search is permissible as a search incident to arrest,” Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of criminal appeals for the attorney general, said yesterday.
Trending: President Trump Must Be Reelected
Ordinarily, I might agree with Paulino here but having been visually assaulted by the random display of very unaesthetic butt cleavage on a regular basis I’m inclined to agree with the Attorney General here. If overturning this decision means that the waistband of trousers will return to the proximity of the waist I am all for it.