Cauls v. Commonwealth

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that observation of “the knotted and frayed end of a plastic bagg[ie] protruding from [a] pocket,” without a view of the bag’s contents, did not provide probable cause
• noting that the plain view doctrine only justifies the seizure of evidence when the officer “did not violate the Fourth Amendment in arriving at the place from which the evidence could be plainly viewed”
• “[I]f an item is indeed in ‘plain view,’ the Fourth Amendment is not engaged unless and until the item is seized because no search has occurred.”
• deputy’s observation of knotted and frayed end of plastic baggie protruding from defendant’s pants pocket, standing alone, not sufficient to provide probable cause under the plain-view exception because the baggie’s incriminating character was not immediately apparent
• a folded dollar bill and a plastic bag

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).