What, if any, defenses does Tammy have?
Tammy is on probation for robbery. One of her probation conditions is that she stay away from known felons. At Thanksgiving dinner, Tammy's cousin, Denny, was just released from prison on a gun charge. Denny and Talit smoked some marijuana. Tammy's parole officer, in the neighborhood from her own turkey celebration, saw Talit behind the driving wheel in a car outside her mother's house. The probation officer ordered Tammy out of the car, conducted a search and learned that Denny is a felon. The next business day, the probation officer filed a petition asking the court to find Tammy in violation of her probation conditions, to revoke her suspended sentence and order her to jail for two years.
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER: Answers may vary: Perhaps Tammy can claim lack of scienter, knowledge, that her cousin Denny was a felon. Under Brendlin v. California (2007), Tammy does have the right to challenge the legal sufficiency of the probation officer's initial stop of the car. While it is a fact that probationers have diminished rights against search and seizure, they still do have rights. If the parole officer knew of no illegality on the part of Tammy before she stopped the car, the stop may be invalid and so, too, the subsequent search, which would be Tammy's best defense.
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