NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) — A federal judge ordered a hearing in the Luigi Mangione murder case to question a Pennsylvania police officer about the search of a backpack that authorities say tied him to the killing of UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson.
US District Court Judge Margaret Garnett said Monday that she will conduct a “brief” hearing in the next two weeks to review the Altoona Police Department’s policy for searching Mangione’s backpack after his arrest at a McDonald’s in December 2024. Last month, a New York state judge held a multi-day hearing on the arrest and search.
Mangione’s lawyers have argued that Altoona officers improperly searched his bag without a warrant. Authorities say the search yielded a handgun, silencer, gun magazine and notebook that all tie Mangione, 27, to the shooting of Thompson outside a midtown Manhattan hotel. Mangione has pleaded not guilty to separate federal and New York state murder charges.
Garnett ordered US prosecutors to bring to the hearing an Altoona officer “with sufficient authority and experience to testify about the established or standardized procedures in use by the department in December 2024 for securing, safeguarding, and, if applicable, inventorying the personal property of a person arrested in a public place.”
The judge also said prosecutors must produce the affidavit supporting a federal search warrant on Mangione’s property. Her order followed a Jan. 9 hearing where she deferred a decision on whether Altoona police should be questioned. That hearing focused primarily on the basis for accusing Mangione of stalking Thompson, which could lead to the death penalty when combined with the murder charges.
At the hearing last week, Garnett asked Mangione attorney Jacob Kaplan about an Altoona policy that police could inventory property taken from a detainee or “any property that he had with him at the time of being detained or arrested.”
Kaplan said that while the backpack was near Mangione when they first approached him, police soon moved it away.
“I’m making the distinction between personal property that he has on him versus personal property that was no longer on him,” Kaplan said. “It’s not as simple as it was on the table in front of him. This was 10 feet away at the point — the time of his arrest.”
At the state court hearing last month, several Altoona officers testified about the arrest of Mangione and search of his backpack. The hearing featured video footage taken from body cameras of several officers as they approached, questioned and detained Mangione on Dec. 9, 2024.
New York state Judge Gregory Carro said he’ll rule on the request to suppress the evidence by May 18.
The case is US v. Mangione, 25-cr-00176, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
More stories available on bloomberg.com.