FL1: Officers crossing protected lands to get to unprotected lands to make a plain view doesn’t justify exclusion

“Police entered protected property to get to unprotected property to make an observation in open fields. That prior unlawful intrusion doesn’t justify exclusion. “Florida law is relatively clear whether to suppress evidence discovered on a person’s property during an officer’s unlawful intrusion onto that property. Likewise, adequate case law addresses the suppression of evidence located on property protected under the Fourth Amendment that was observed from a vantage point that was not on the protected property. But this case presents the opposite scenario, for which little case law exists: an officer unlawfully intrudes onto protected property, and from there proceeds onto unprotected property and discovers evidence there. In a detailed order, the trial court below suppressed such evidence. Because we find that Ware had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the area where the evidence was located, and because the officer could not have seen the evidence until he left the protected property, we find that, in the circumstances presented here, the evidence was not subject to the suppression, irrespective of the unlawful intrusion that preceded it. We reverse the order granting suppression.” State v. Ware, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 3727 (Fla. 1st DCA Mar. 20, 2020).

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