State v. Timothy R. Stankus, 220 Wis. 2d 232, 582 N.W.2d 468 (Ct. App. 1998)
For Stankus: Steven J. Watson
Issue/Holding: Telling the officer that the trunk did not open failed to limit the scope of consent to search the trunk when the driver also said, “you can even look in the trunk”:
His statement that the trunk did not open in no way restricted his initial consent. Instead, his statement can easily be interpreted as informing the police that the normal method of entry was unavailable, but if they could figure out a way into the truck, they were free to search. The trial court’s finding that Stankus gave the police permission to search the trunk is not clearly erroneous.
