Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

It is clearly Not admissable evidence, if siezed as the result of an illegal search. However don't think law enforcement has the same position you may have regarding the legality of a specific search. Never under-estimate the prosecution, or the extents the law isa willing to go to make a questioable search legal. Seek counsel ALWAYS. I wish you the best. David Wallin

As Mr. Wallin points out, you are concluding that the search and seizure was unlawfully conducted. Analyzing search and seizure issues are factually instensive, and I suggest contacting a lawyer and going over the incident at length and with detail.

Mr. Wallin is right, but only if (a) the search was illegal and (b) the person arrested lives in the house. Mr. Wallin and Mr. Roach have already pointed out that (a) isn't necessarily true. But even if it is, (b) may still pose a problem. An illegal search of a house violates the rights of its occupants, but not of visitors. A visitor would not be able to argue that the improper search of the house violated her rights.

Even so, it is possible that the police committed a further violation by improperly searching the arrested person's pockets. If they did, then the evidence might be excludable on that basis. I would need to know a lot more about the facts before I could assess this claim.