Chief Casady's squad is a little red-faced today after a lapse in judgment resulted in the Fourth Amendment helping to free a suspect in the Scheels robbery last October 1. Prosecutors were forced to drop their case against Jameal Gaines when a critical piece of evidence was ruled inadmissible because it had been acquired illegally.
Mistakes like this happen now and then in every police department. The unfortunate thing about this situation for LPD is that the robbery was very high-profile. Losing one of the main suspects due to a violation of his Constitutional rights is very embarrassing.
It'll be interesting to see if Chief Casady addresses this publicly on his blog. He probably won't (and maybe even can't) address this situation specifically, but it would be interesting to read his general perspective on suspect rights during evidence gathering.
UPDATE: Indeed, Chief Casady has chimed in. An excerpt:
The probation order specified the conditions, and number 12 on that list was a requirement that the defendant "shall submit to search of his person, home, and school locker by the juvenile probation officer." The police officers spoke to the juvenile court probation officer via telephone, who advised them that they could search based on the court's order.
The District Court, however, ruled that the probation officer can't transfer the authority of the Juvenile Court's order authorizing the search to a police officer.
Emphasis in original.
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