Drug Sentence, Conviction Nixed After Illegal Towing, Car Search

A Puerto Rico man who was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment after police found drugs and a firearm in his car got his sentence and conviction reversed when the First Circuit ruled Monday that police unlawfully searched and seized his vehicle.

Government prosecutors can’t use evidence of marijuana and a revolver found in Rafael Antonio Del Rosario-Acosta’s car against him, because the police who arrested him weren’t justified in towing and searching his car, the court said.

The dispute stems from a July 2014 incident in which Puerto Rico police responded to reports of an armed person at a gas ...