Police went to a motel to tell the operator that a person in room 114 was associated with a guy arrested in a stolen car just leaving the motel property. The motel operator gave a key to the room to the police and told them to evict the guy because he believed they were all involved in criminal conduct. The police went to the room and entered it. United States v. Peoples, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155536 (W.D.Mo. Nov. 18, 2015), adopted 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155787 (W.D.Mo. Nov. 18, 2015):
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Based on Mo. Rev. Stat. \u00a7 315.075, the motel management was justified in evicting the occupants of Room 114 and in seeking the assistance of local law enforcement to carry out that eviction. The Court finds that Officer Galloway was acting at the request of and on behalf of the management of the Crown Lodge Motel when he went to Room 114. As set out in United States v. Rambo, 789 F.2d 1289, 1295-96 (8th Cir. 1986), a person no longer has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a motel room, and therefore is without standing to contest officers’ entry into the room, when officers, at the request of management, act to evict the person. See also United States v. Molsbarger, 551 F.3d 809, 811 (8th Cir. 2009) (“Justifiable eviction terminates a hotel occupant’s reasonable expectation of privacy in the room.”) The rental period terminates and control over the room reverts to the management. Rambo, 789 F.2d at 1295-96; United States v. Bohmont, 413 F. App’x 946, 951 (8th Cir. 2011). “In sum, [defendant’s] constitutional rights were not violated by the officers’ entry into his hotel suite because when a hotel guest is properly evicted he loses the Fourth Amendment’s protection against warrantless entry.” Young v. Harrison, 284 F.3d 863, 869 (8th Cir. 2002). There was no constitutional violation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police went to a motel to tell the operator that a person in room 114 was associated with a guy arrested in a stolen car just leaving the motel property. The motel operator gave a key to the room to … Continue reading