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Convicted man loses appeal on search of his car
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man serving a prison term on charges of trafficking in heroin and trafficking in fentanyl lost an appeal Wednesday on the search that landed him in prison.
The Seventh District Court Of Appeals ruled against Leonard Sykes, 43, who appealed his convictions on the grounds that a search by Boardman police that discovered the drugs violated that department’s policy for searching towed vehicles as well as his Fourth Amendment rights against unnecessary or unlawful searches.
Sykes asked for the search to be suppressed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, but Judge Lou A. D’Apolito ruled against him. He then entered a no-contest plea Nov. 28, 2017, and was found guilty and sentenced to prison, after he lost the suppression motion.
Sykes was charged after he was pulled over Jan. 14, 2017, on U.S. Route 224 for speeding. The officer smelled marijuana coming from the car, and Sykes also had bloodshot eyes and admitted smoking marijuana. That gave the officer probable cause to search the car. As the car was being searched, police learned Sykes has numerous suspensions on his driver’s license and was not allowed to drive.
The probable-cause search found nothing illegal, but police decided to have the car towed because Sykes is not allowed to drive. The opinion said the officer would have allowed Sykes to have a relative come get the car, but Sykes is from Pittsburgh and since it would take too long for someone to get the car, they decided to tow it. When the car was searched more thoroughly before it was towed, police found the drugs in the compartment where the spare tire is located.
Sykes appealed his convictions, saying that the department’s policy of searching towed vehicles is so broad that it violates the Fourth Amendment and would allow for thorough searches of any vehicle that had to be impounded.
The appeals court found that the search complied with the department’s policy of searching vehicles that were about to be towed or impounded. The policy calls for the trunk to be searched and for any closed containers to be opened, the opinion says.
The opinion said that the state Supreme Court has also allowed for closed containers to be opened in inventory searches, calling that practice allowable if there is a policy that calls for that action to be taken. Boardman has such a policy, the appeals court said.
Additionally, the appeals court said the argument was never made that Boardman’s policy is too wide-ranging, so the court did not rule on that part of the argument.