ME: Entry on curtilage for “security check” just before SW issued was inevitable discovery

Officers arrested defendant’s housemate at a motel for attempting to buy oxycontin. Somehow, not described, this led to probable cause to search her house. While other officers were obtaining a search warrant, two officers went to the house for a “security check” in anticipation of the search warrant being issued and served. Nobody answered the front door, so they went around to the back to look for another door. In the fresh snow, right outside a window, were translucent bags in which the officers could see drug paraphernalia without even picking them up. This was on the curtliage and apparently thrown out the window, but it was plain view and inevitable discovery applied. Suppressing here would not advance any purpose of the Fourth Amendment or curb future police overreach. State v. Sullivan, 2018 ME 37, 2018 Me. LEXIS 38 (Mar. 15, 2018).