March 31, 2017, 10:29
samantha vickeryConsent to Search Cell Phone Without Legal Guardian
I have a case where the legal guardian of a juvenile is her grandmother and her grandmother is the one who pays the cell phone bill. The officer does not know what the legal status is between grandmother/mother when he asks the juvenile and her mother for consent to search; he assumes that the mother is the guardian and therefore the owner of the cell phone. Juvenile and her mother sign a consent to search; grandmother does not sign. A motion to suppress has been filed due to this ownership issue: do I have any argument that the mother had the right to sign the consent with her daughter?