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"Plain View and Reasonable Expectation of Privacy "

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InquirinMind

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Minnesota

I'll try to make this short as possible According to police report an 2 officers were executing a "pick up and hold" (is this a warrant?) on someone who lived at the residence. One officer went around the back of the house goes up the stairs of the deck and stands next to the patio door. He looks thru the door and sees 2 people, a man and a woman sitting on the couch smoking a drug. He's doesn’t know if the guy on the couch is the person he's looking for or not, but thinks it might be because that guy's car is outside. In the report he gives a long narrative of what he observed while looking through the back door. He then tells the officer in the front of the house what he sees and that officer knocks on the front door, the officer in the back watches the woman stand up and see that its an officer at the front door and sees her grab a small baggie and put in under a towel on the kitchen table. He also says he saw the man "take a bong off the coffee table and put it along side of the couch and then position himself across the couch and begin watching t.v" When the woman answers the front door the officer asks her if the person they were looking for is there she tells him no - he then asks if he could come in and she says yes - Once the officer is in the house - the one standing next to the patio door enters as well and tells the officer what he saw. The woman is charged for the bag she hid under the towel. The man is identified and then searched they find "a plastic bag in his pocket containing a white crystal in the bottom" so in other words a very small amount. The man is then charged with a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree Crime - the penalty is up to 10 years and $20,000 - My question is did they have a right to search him? Can the officer use what he saw while looking through the patio door against him? Is this what is known as in "Plain View"... Wouldn't a patio door located in the rear of your house lead you to have reasonable expectation of privacy . Any info would be greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state?
 


AlanShore

Member
What is the name of your state? Minnesota

I'll try to make this short as possible According to police report an 2 officers were executing a "pick up and hold" (is this a warrant?) on someone who lived at the residence. One officer went around the back of the house goes up the stairs of the deck and stands next to the patio door. He looks thru the door and sees 2 people, a man and a woman sitting on the couch smoking a drug. He's doesn’t know if the guy on the couch is the person he's looking for or not, but thinks it might be because that guy's car is outside. In the report he gives a long narrative of what he observed while looking through the back door. He then tells the officer in the front of the house what he sees and that officer knocks on the front door, the officer in the back watches the woman stand up and see that its an officer at the front door and sees her grab a small baggie and put in under a towel on the kitchen table. He also says he saw the man "take a bong off the coffee table and put it along side of the couch and then position himself across the couch and begin watching t.v" When the woman answers the front door the officer asks her if the person they were looking for is there she tells him no - he then asks if he could come in and she says yes - Once the officer is in the house - the one standing next to the patio door enters as well and tells the officer what he saw. The woman is charged for the bag she hid under the towel. The man is identified and then searched they find "a plastic bag in his pocket containing a white crystal in the bottom" so in other words a very small amount. The man is then charged with a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree Crime - the penalty is up to 10 years and $20,000 - My question is did they have a right to search him? Can the officer use what he saw while looking through the patio door against him? Is this what is known as in "Plain View"... Wouldn't a patio door located in the rear of your house lead you to have reasonable expectation of privacy . Any info would be greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state?
Sounds legal.
 

ceara19

Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Minnesota

I'll try to make this short as possible According to police report an 2 officers were executing a "pick up and hold" (is this a warrant?) on someone who lived at the residence. One officer went around the back of the house goes up the stairs of the deck and stands next to the patio door. He looks thru the door and sees 2 people, a man and a woman sitting on the couch smoking a drug. He's doesn’t know if the guy on the couch is the person he's looking for or not, but thinks it might be because that guy's car is outside. In the report he gives a long narrative of what he observed while looking through the back door. He then tells the officer in the front of the house what he sees and that officer knocks on the front door, the officer in the back watches the woman stand up and see that its an officer at the front door and sees her grab a small baggie and put in under a towel on the kitchen table. He also says he saw the man "take a bong off the coffee table and put it along side of the couch and then position himself across the couch and begin watching t.v" When the woman answers the front door the officer asks her if the person they were looking for is there she tells him no - he then asks if he could come in and she says yes - Once the officer is in the house - the one standing next to the patio door enters as well and tells the officer what he saw. The woman is charged for the bag she hid under the towel. The man is identified and then searched they find "a plastic bag in his pocket containing a white crystal in the bottom" so in other words a very small amount. The man is then charged with a Controlled Substance in the 5th Degree Crime - the penalty is up to 10 years and $20,000 - My question is did they have a right to search him? Can the officer use what he saw while looking through the patio door against him? Is this what is known as in "Plain View"... Wouldn't a patio door located in the rear of your house lead you to have reasonable expectation of privacy . Any info would be greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state?
Why don't people that do drugs ever invest in CURTAINS?
 

outonbail

Senior Member
Why don't people that do drugs ever invest in CURTAINS?
They may have been heading to the store to buy curtains when they saw a big sign in front of the local head shop that read, "SALE! Buy one Bong, get another Bong of equal or less value for FREE!

Now who could pass up an opportunity like that?
Besides, no one thinks about the pillow case covering the window being too small when there's a new Bong that needs to be broken in!
 

tranquility

Senior Member
If there was a warrant for the arrest of a person and police had probable cause to think he was at the residence, there is no problem at all. If there was not a warrant or there was not probable cause to think the person described in the warrant was there at the residence, there may be a problem.

"What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject for Fourth Amendment protection." This usually means that what the police can see when they are in a place they have a right to be, can be used in court. (There are exceptions, like the use of detailed thermal imaging devices.) This brings us to the main issue, did the police officer have a right to be where he could see the drugs?

One officer went around the back of the house goes up the stairs of the deck and stands next to the patio door.
This is where the question lies and I believe there is a circut split on the matter and each state is different too. Contrary to the posts so far, no one can tell you if the testimony by the viewing police officer is admissible or the result of an illegal "search" without doing specific research of the law in your state and circuit. The search will be very fact sensitive and involve a totality of the circumstances weighing which will be done by the court.

It is an issue.
 

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