{"id":7367,"date":"2012-10-02T12:58:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T08:40:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T08:40:59","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=7367","title":{"rendered":"MD: School teacher had no REP in his desk at work; it was: never locked, in a common area, used some by others"},"content":{"rendered":"

A school teacher had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his desk at work because it was never locked, it was in a common area, and others had access. Walker v. State<\/a>, 206 Md. App. 13, 47 A.3d 590 (2012):<\/p>\n

Applying precedent [Macusi<\/a> and O\u2019Connor<\/a> et al.] to the case at bar yields the conclusion that appellant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the desk. We recognize that appellant was assigned the desk and that he had used the same desk in prior school years. Yet, the desk was owned by the school system and was located in a large, open, well-traversed room. This room was referred to as the “first grade pod,” connecting several classrooms, and contained desks for two other paraeducators. Because it was so centrally located, students and faculty routinely passed the desk. Small instructional groups and after-school programs also held meetings and conducted other activities in the large room, which was only secured at night when the custodians locked the doors leading to the outer hallways. Appellant could have taken steps to safeguard what he kept in the desk, but did not. The principal of appellant’s school indicated that although other people at the school likely would not have reason to open the drawers of the desk, he stated that someone might look in the desk “to borrow a pencil or something like that.” Furthermore, at the time of the search, the drawers read “seminars, research data,” “student data,” and “learning.”<\/p>\n

Regardless of who originally placed them on the drawers, the labels suggested that the drawers contained school-related materials accessible to a wide range of persons, rather than appellant’s personal, private items. Cf. O’Connor, 480 U.S. at 718 (employee had a reasonable expectation of privacy in desk and file cabinet in own office not shared with anyone else in which he stored personal documents); Gillard v. Schmidt, 579 F.2d 825, 828 (1978) (guidance counselor who was responsible for maintaining confidential student records and whose desk was in an office secured by a locked door had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his desk). Appellant could have used a private locker provided to him by the school, but he did not. Appellant had the option of locking the desk, but he did not. The aforementioned facts, taken together, indicate that appellant did not have a subjective expectation of privacy, and even if he did, such an expectation was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances presented. Accordingly, we discern no error in the circuit court’s denial of appellant’s motion to suppress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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