CA11: Defendant lacked standing on the curtilage of a house he was often a guest in when he was fleeing police and stopped in front yard

Defendant was riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the street, and the police recognized him from prior investigations, so they followed and attempted to stop him. He pedelled faster and went to house and entered a gate to the property. There he discarded a gun. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the curtilage when running from the police. He was a frequent guest there, but it wasn’t his house. United States v. Merricks, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 13674 (11th Cir. July 17, 2014).

In defendant’s 2255, he raised an illegal search issue foreclosed by Stone v. Powell, but it hadn’t been raised before. Assuming an IAC route to the claim, it would lose on the merits because the computer was taken to a computer shop for software cleanup, and the tech guy found child pornography and reported it, and the conviction followed. Wright v. United States, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 188248 (E.D. Mich. June 24, 2013).*

There was probable cause for searching defendant’s car seen at the scene of a 93kg drug delivery. The surveillance was extensive, the car seen earlier, and then at the drop. This case can’t be compared to just those of just being seen at a hand-to-hand drug deal. United States v. Macias, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96314 (E.D. Ky. July 16, 2014).*