MD: School teacher had no REP in his desk at work; it was: never locked, in a common area, used some by others

A paraeducator had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his desk at school because it was never locked and others could regularly have access to it. Walker v. State, 432 Md. 587, 69 A.3d 1066 (2013), affg Walker v. State, 206 Md. App. 13, 47 A.3d 590 (2012) (posted here):

As we consider the facts here, we bear in mind that Petitioner must demonstrate that he had a subjective expectation of privacy and that this expectation is one that society is prepared to accept as reasonable. We conclude that the undisputed facts developed at the suppression hearing show that Petitioner did not enjoy even a subjective expectation of privacy in the desk. To be sure, several facts point in the direction of Petitioner having a subjective expectation of privacy. The desk was assigned to him and he was its sole user. Petitioner had used the same desk in prior years and stored personal, as well as work-related, items in the desk. And, unlike in Faulkner, supra, there was apparently no school policy that would have put Petitioner on notice of the potential of a search.

Other facts, though, suggest the contrary expectation. The desk was owned by the school system and located in an open area between classrooms. The door leading to the pod where Petitioner’s desk was located was secured only at night and teachers and students frequently passed by the desk during the day. The desk was not locked, despite Petitioner having the ability to request a key to lock the desk. Petitioner also had the option of requesting a locker for his personal belongings, but did not use one, which supports an inference that anything kept within his desk was more likely to be school-related than personal because he otherwise likely would have sought out a personal locker.

Additionally, the school’s principal testified that someone might open the desk drawers to borrow a pencil. This would have been made more likely by the generic labels placed on Petitioner’s desk drawers, which included descriptions such as “utensils + desk items.” Although it is not unusual for people to categorize and label their personal belongings, even if they do not intend for others to see them, these labels were on the outside of a desk in a heavily-trafficked school setting. A reasonable inference, drawn from looking at some of these labels, would be that work-related items, and not personal ones, are stored in the desk.

The facts, in their totality, do not demonstrate that Petitioner had a subjective expectation of privacy in the desk. The open nature of the room; the high volume of traffic around it; the labels on the desk drawers; Petitioner’s failure to lock the desk when given the option to do so; and his failure to testify that he believed the desk was for his private use or offer any other evidence to that effect all support our conclusion. Petitioner’s failure to meet the first prong of the Katz test means that we need not consider the second, objective prong.