People v. Zayed

Defendant was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, found after pat-down search and then strip search. Court properly granted Defendant's motion to suppress evidence. Officer had probable cause to conduct a search of Defendant, given that when he approached his car (stopped for failure to use turn signal), he immediately smelled very strong odor of burnt cannabis coming from vehicle.  However, officer's strip search of Defendant was unreasonable. Officer's attempted steps to reduce intrusiveness of search were inadequate; search was conducted on a residential street on which numerous vehicles passed during stop and search, and streetlights provided some illumination of area.(O'BRIEN and HOLDRIDGE, concurring.)