U.S. v. Hudson

In prosecution on charge of possession of machinegun, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress Clock component that defendant spit out of his mouth in hospital emergency room while being treated for gunshot wound in his buttocks. Record showed that police officer followed defendant to hospital and discovered from defendant that he had been shot in buttocks during shooting incident to which police had been called. Also, once at hospital, officer waited outside area where defendant was being treated, and hospital personnel discovered that defendant had plastic object in his mouth and believed that said object contained drugs. While defendant argued that plastic object that turned out to be Glock component that was used to convert firearm into fully automatic weapon should be suppressed because hospital personnel acted as agent of police, Ct. of Appeals held that Dist. Ct. could properly conclude that hospital staff, in encouraging defendant to spit out plastic object, acted with purpose of providing medical treatment to defendant. Too, police officer neither induced nor encouraged medical staff to act. As such, no Fourth Amendment violation occurred, where no agency relationship existed between hospital staff and police.