Drug Conviction Struck Down Over Illegal Search

A federal appeals court on Monday overturned the conviction of a reputed drug dealer, finding that Los Angeles police illegally searched his truck to uncover more than 700 pounds of cocaine. The defendant, Ismael Bruges, had been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison.

But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that officers failed to show that they obtained Bruges’ voluntary consent for the search of his truck-trailer and its contents.

In June, 1988, six Los Angeles Police Department officers, with weapons drawn, converged on Bruges and others involved in the alleged drug dealing, ordered them to lie face down on the pavement, handcuffed and frisked them and then searched the truck.

Bruges’s lawyer maintained that U.S. District Judge Manuel Real should have forbidden presentation of the evidence gained from the search because the defendants submitted to the search only while they had guns pointed at them.