Keeping with the latest styles, John Paulino, then 21, wore his pants down around his thighs in the fall of 2000.
But did that fashion choice mean that Baltimore County police had the right to search his nether regions for drugs?
In 4-3 decision Monday, Maryland?s highest court ruled Paulino?s low-riding pants did not forfeit his right to privacy, and the search of his gluteus maximus ? where Paulino hid cocaine ? is therefore illegal.
Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Clayton Greene wrote that the search of Paulino “unreasonably infringed on his personal privacy interests.”
On Sept. 29, 2000, an informant told Baltimore County Police Det. Elliot Latchaw Paulino would be in Dundalk in possession of drugs that he typically hid inside his buttocks.
Police cornered Paulino and several friends inside a Jeep Cherokee after they pulled into a car wash.
“His pants were already pretty much down around his ? below his butt, because I guess that?s the fad, these guys like wearing their pants down real low,” Latchaw testified, adding that police simply needed to move his boxer shorts and spread his buttocks to find the drugs.
A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge ruled the search legal and found Paulino guilty of possession with intent to distribute, sentencing him 10 years in prison, but Monday?s decision means that ruling is reversed.
Since other passengers were in the car with Paulino, “the police could have conducted the search in the privacy of a police van,” Greene wrote.
But three judges on the state?s highest court dissented.
“If a person wants to have an expectation of privacy in that area of his or her body, he or she should keep their pants up when in public,” Court of Appeals Judge Dale Cathell wrote in his dissenting opinion.
