S.D.W.Va.: Officers can’t claim exigency for def’s response to false assertion they had a SW

Officers can’t falsely claim they have a search warrant and then use the target’s response to claim exigency for a warrantless entry into a home. United States v. Lark, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 238720 (S.D.W.Va. Dec. 14, 2021):

Importantly, on the audio recording from the night of the search, an officer clearly yells the false claim that police have a search warrant during the police’s forced entry of Mr. Lark’s home. [ECF No. 57-3, at 9:21]; see King, 563 U.S. at 469 (holding the exigent circumstances exception does not apply when police gain entry to a defendant’s home through actual and threatened violations of the Fourth Amendment). Given these facts, I find that there were no exigent circumstances that justified officers’ forced entry of Mr. Lark’s home. Because I find that no exception to the warrant requirement applies, I order the evidence seized after officers’ illegal entry to Mr. Lark’s home be suppressed.