Emergency Room Nurses Gave Gunshot Victim’s Drugs To Police: No Violation of Patient’s Rights.
Submitted by Kenneth Snyder
Introduction
The government cannot use private individuals to get around the laws that require probable cause and a search warrant to search another person’s person, property or dwelling for illegal contraband. However, there is no violation of a suspect’s rights when the fruits of a private individual’s search of the suspect’s person, property, or dwelling are turned over to law enforcement without the private individual having an understanding with law enforcement that they will assist law enforcement. Facts of the Case The patient was brought to the emergency department in a private vehicle at about 3:00 a.m. with life-threatening gunshot wounds to his neck and jaw. The victim was conscious, but the only thing he could say to the nurses was that he could not breathe. The emergency department nurses needed to identify the patient by name and birth date. His birth date was important so they could enter him into the hospital system and determine if he had a prior medical history at that hospital that might reveal such things as known medication allergies. The nurses began looking for his identification in his clothes that they had removed. In his pants pocket they found a wad of cash, some pills and a bag of marijuana. One of the nurses turned over the incriminating contents of the patient’s pocket to a police officer who had been standing by outside the exam room. Nurses Were Following Hospital’s Protocols This hospital’s protocols for uncommunicative gunshot victims required the emergency department nurses to search the patient for their identification, particularly their date of birth, under which a past hospital chart, if there was one, would be indexed. In undressing the patient, the nurses were following the hospital’s protocol for a full body exam for other gunshot wounds or other injuries. In searching the patient’s clothing for his identification, the nurses were following hospital protocols with no intention of their own or orders from the police to search for incriminating evidence on his person. At no time did the nurses receive any direction or request from the police officer standing by that they question their patient, search their patient’s belongings or turn over anything they found to the police. The nurses were at all times carrying out their responsibilities as emergency department nurses following hospital protocols for their patient’s care. Patient’s Rights Were Not Violated The US District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ruled the contents of the suspect’s pocket will not be suppressed from evidence at the patient’s trial on charges of possession with intent to distribute narcotics. If the patient’s rights had been violated by the nurses in the emergency department acting more like police detectives than legitimate healthcare providers, the fact he had pills and marijuana on his person and the pills and marijuana themselves could not be brought up at trial. Without that evidence, his case would likely result in an acquittal, or the charges simply being dropped for lack of admissible evidence.
The legal analysis starts with the general proposition that an individual’s Constitutional rights protect the individual only from the actions of government agents. A private individual, acting only as a private individual, cannot violate another person’s Constitutional rights. Constitutional rights and civil rights are not the same thing. That is true conceptually, although there is considerable overlap in actual practice. The US Constitution, specifically the Fourth Amendment to the Bill of Rights, protects persons from unreasonable searches of their persons and dwellings and unreasonable seizures of their property. However, that only applies to the actions of the police or actions of persons acting for the police. Civil rights, on the other hand, are not guaranteed by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, but come from laws passed by the US Congress or state or local legislatures. For example, civil rights include disability and other discrimination laws. Discrimination laws protect individuals from discriminatory actions by private persons and private corporations as well as governmental authorities. To claim a violation of his Constitutional rights, the patient here would have to prove there was a prior arrangement between the hospital and the police department. The arrangement would have to have been for the hospital to direct its nursing personnel to search patients without a search warrant on behalf of the police department, in situations where the police department did not have probable cause or otherwise could not get a search warrant, or at least did not have a search warrant to justify a search. To make the existence of such an arrangement even more difficult to prove, the courts have added the requirement that, to be considered an agent of the police, the private party alleged to be acting on behalf of the police must be getting paid to do so. The hospital’s emergency department nurses were private individuals doing their job as hospital nurses and had no prior connection to the police.
Reference
- United States v. Coleman, No. 4:24-CR.71, 2025 WL 20427 (N.D. Miss., January 2, 2025).