W.D.Wis.: Parole absconder hiding in hotel room of another had no standing

Defendant was a guest of a guest in a hotel room, and he was an absconder from supervision and had committed a new crime and was on the run. The question of guest standing is discussed at length, and there’s no doubt he was there for a few days with consent of the renter. The court finds, however, that his status as an absconder on the lam is not an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to find as reasonable. Alternatively, there was no reasonable expectation of privacy here because the group had been ejected by the hotel. United States v. Procknow, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188029 (W.D. Wis. December 20, 2013).

On wiretaps, defendant, a convicted felon, was heard to be talking about taking two loaded guns to a CVS store parking lot and they’d be hidden under children’s costumes in the back seat. Officers got to the place, and defendant saw them and ran. In the back seat officers could see costumes. “The fact that Defendant ran only reinforced the probable cause to arrest that the officers already had.” While running, he locked the car with the key fob and threw it up on the roof of the CVS. The search of the car was justified under the automobile exception. “Further, while neither party disputes that Defendant threw his keys on the roof of the CVS, the Court notes that in discarding his keys into the public domain, Defendant may have forfeited any privacy interest he had in his vehicle or the contents therein, and in fact his actions indicate an intent to distance himself from the car.” United States v. Payne, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83334 (N.D. Ill. June 19, 2014).*

The stop of defendant was based on the officer’s observations and the totality of circumstances. Its continuation was reasonable under the circumstances and largely extended because of defendant’s moving around in the car which the officer took as excessive nervousness and potentially concealing drugs or a firearm. United States v. Coker, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83743 (E.D. Tenn. January 6, 2014).*