Commonwealth v. D.W.

Client was passenger in a car that was stopped by police for a traffic violation. The driver failed to produce a valid license and gave conflicting information about who owned the car so both the driver and passenger were detained. Police ultimately got consent to search from the true owner, and were also prepared to conduct a “live stop”, or inventory search of the car as well. Police subsequently searched the car and found a gun in the trunk. D.W. was arrested and allegedly provides a written statement from detectives that the gun was his. Philadelphia gun lawyer R. Patrick Link moved to suppress the gun on the basis that police lacked reasonable suspicion to detain him and that the search was an illegal investigatory search and therefore no exception to the warrant requirement applied. The defense also challenged the statements made to police as fruits of the initial illegal detention and search, as well as taken in violation of his right to counsel.