S.D.N.Y.: Riley issue preserved and came down after verdict, but harmless on this record

The motion to suppress a cell phone search under the automobile exception was filed and heard in November before Riley, and defendant was convicted. Before sentencing, Riley came down, and the court asked for briefs. The court concludes the search of the cell phone was harmless on the record as a whole, comparing what was found to the rest of the proof. United States v. Figueroa, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146722 (S.D. N.Y. October 1, 2014).*

The state law requirement of warnings before a knock and talk don’t apply to arrest warrants. State v. Westvang, 2014 Wash. App. LEXIS 2452 (October 10, 2014).*

Police entered an apartment in a homicide investigation with an arrest warrant. On the totality, they had a reasonable belief that exigent circumstances justified their entry into the nearby bedroom to protect their own safety and the safety of the occupants of the apartment. The suspect in the arrest warrant had committed a homicide within the past two days, the murder weapon had not been found, the police had traced to the address that they had entered a cell phone that a witness had told them was being used by the suspect, the landlord of the building indicated that there was a man who matched the suspect’s description in the third floor apartment at that address, and the tenant allowed the officers into the apartment and indicated that there were two men in the nearby bedroom who matched the description. State v. Kendrick, 2014 Conn. LEXIS 310 (October 21, 2014)* (dissent; dissent).