S.D.N.Y.: Insufficient evidence of defendant’s presence in the home of a third party to justify entry

There was insufficient evidence defendant was in the place to be entered, of another person, to justify this entry. United States v. Luckey, 701 F. Supp. 2d 464 (S.D. N.Y. 2009):

Thus, a threshold question must be answered when law enforcement enters a home solely on the power of an arrest warrant: Did the officers know or have reason to know that they were entering a home belonging to a third party but not the arrestee? If the answer is yes, then Steagald controls. The question of whether the officers knew or had reason to know that they were entering the home of a person not named in the arrest warrant is another way of approaching the first prong of the test stated in Lauter: Where the officers had no reasonable basis to believe they were entering an arrestee’s residence, Steagald requires a search warrant, consent, or exigent circumstances. Of course “[w]hat a citizen is ‘assured by the Fourth Amendment … is not that no government search of his house will occur’ in the absence of a warrant or an applicable exception to the warrant requirement, ‘but that no such search will occur that is ‘unreasonable.”” 83

83 Lovelock, 170 F.3d at 343-44 (quoting Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 183 (1990)).

. . .

In the totality of circumstances, the officers had reason to know they were entering the home of a person not named in the arrest warrant. Under Steagald, to enter apartment 1R, the officers needed a search warrant, consent, or exigent circumstances, all of which they lacked. Even if Steagald does not control, the information possessed by the officers was insufficient to support a reasonable belief that Lee was residing in apartment 1R or there at the time of the entry.

IV. CONCLUSION

The Court is acutely aware that crime and evidence of crime is often concealed within homes, as the facts of this case seem to illustrate. Illegal activity within homes is of “grave concern to society, and the law allows such crime to be reached on proper showing.” “The right of officers to thrust themselves into a home is also a grave concern, not only to the individual but to a society which chooses to dwell in reasonable security and freedom from surveillance. When the right of privacy must reasonably yield to the right of search is, as a rule, to be decided by a judicial officer, not by a police [officer] or Government enforcement agent.” I have no doubt the officers here were acting in good faith to apprehend a fugitive and to enforce the laws that help to ensure a safe and orderly society. Law enforcement must, however, conduct itself in accord with the commands of the Constitution.