MT: Probation search was justified; its overall reasonableness didn’t warrant suppression here

There was reasonable suspicion for the probation search of defendant’s house based on his wife’s report that he was using meth again. The supervisory PO authorized a warrantless entry if necessary. The record is limited as to the reasonableness of the search itself, including defendant sitting handcuffed and naked for 30 minutes on his bed. The court finds the exclusionary rule inapplicable because that had nothing to do with the legality of the entry. “It is beyond genuine material dispute on the evidentiary record in this case that the cause-in-fact of the discovery of the methamphetamine, which was the subject of the subsequent motion to suppress, was not the manner of the officers’ entry into his apartment, but their reasonable suspicion that he had been using and was in possession of methamphetamine in violation of his probation and the criminal law, thus justifying a warrantless entry and related search under the probation search exception to the warrant requirements of the Fourth Amendment and Article II, Sections 10-11 of the Montana Constitution.” State v. Peoples, 2022 MT 4, 2022 Mont. LEXIS 5 (Jan. 11, 2022).