{"id":7549,"date":"2012-10-02T14:23:13","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T07:28:40","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T07:28:40","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=7549","title":{"rendered":"CA3: Police were objectively reasonable in entering a house they thought was abandoned but it wasn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant was in a house that the police reasonably thought was abandoned. He had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the house, but the police acted reasonably under the circumstances, and the search was valid. United States v. Harrison<\/a>, 689 F.3d 301 (3d Cir. 2012):<\/p>\n

The same logic applies to a person’s abandonment of his house. A person can, through his own acts or omissions, manifest an intent to relinquish his legitimate expectation of privacy in his real property, as the same test applies regardless of the nature of the property. This is, however, a difficult standard to meet, and one that requires a careful analysis of all the facts and circumstances of a particular case. Before the government may cross the threshold of a home without a warrant, there must be clear, unequivocal and unmistakable evidence that the property has been abandoned. Only then will such a search be permitted.<\/p>\n

In this case, it is undisputed that the house was not actually abandoned and that Harrison, as a renter, possessed a reasonable expectation of privacy in the property. Therefore, the only issue before us is whether the police officers’ belief that the house was abandoned justified their warrantless entry.<\/p>\n

The law does not require that police officers always be factually correct; it does demand, however, that they always be reasonable. Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 186 (1990). “Consequently, a reasonable mistake of fact does not violate the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Delfin-Colina, 464 F.3d 392, 398 (3d Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Elliott, 50 F.3d 180, 185-86 (2d Cir. 1995). In deciding what is reasonable, a court is to apply an objective standard, looking at whether “the facts available to the officer at the moment … warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief” that the search was permissible. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. at 188 (internal quotation marks omitted).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, while a warrantless entry into the home is the “chief evil” the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect (Payton), an objectively reasonable belief it isn’t a home makes it ok?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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