Exigent circumstances justified police chase and entry into an apartment because of an obvious risk of destruction of evidence. The person fleeing was yelling to the occupants of the apartment that the police were there. Verelli v. City of Garfield, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91265 (D. N.J. December 6, 2006):
Second, the officers reasonably concluded that the drugs would be destroyed or removed if they waited to obtain a search warrant. The officers knew that Verelli lived in the apartment. When it became apparent that he was about to be arrested, Shanks ran into the GHA complex, towards Verelli’s apartment, screaming Verelli’s name “at the top of his lungs.” The only reason Shanks did not actually reach Verelli’s apartment is because Detective Martino was able to apprehend him first. The officers had reason to believe that Verelli knew of Shanks’s drug distribution activities, giving further legitimacy to their fear that she might remove or destroy narcotics that might be in the apartment. n5 Though it does not appear that the officers knew whether Verelli heard Shanks’s screams, the agents in Rubin also did not know whether someone at the gas station had in fact alerted the defendant’s brother to destroy the hashish at the place of the search. Nonetheless, the Third Circuit found that the agents had a reasonable belief, based on the defendant’s actions, that this could be so. See Rubin, 474 F.2d at 269. Following Rubin, the Court finds here that the officers could reasonably have believed that Shanks’s actions were designed to signal Verelli to destroy or remove drugs from the apartment. A knock on Verelli’s door by the officers revealed that Verelli was in fact home. Accordingly, exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless search existed.
Defendant was believed to be a pedophile who traveled to the Phillipines nine times in five years for sex with minors. At Customs, he was found in possession of a journal describing sex with minors, and he had photographs in his possession of nude adults. The way he answered the questions, he took pictures but only brought back pictures of adults. Officers believed, however, that it might be likely that digital pictures of minors had been shipped via the internet to himself. The magistrate could fairly conclude on the totality that child porn would be found on the defendant’s home computer, and that justified issuance of the search warrant. United States v. Kaechele, 466 F. Supp. 2d 868 (E.D. Mich. November 29, 2006):
Turning to this substantive inquiry, the Court finds that Magistrate Judge McCoun had a substantial basis for concluding that a search of Defendant’s residence would uncover evidence of a violation of the federal child pornography statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A. This statute, as pertinent here, prohibits the shipment in interstate or foreign commerce, receipt, distribution, or reproduction of child pornography. As noted by the Government, the following facts of relevance to the magistrate’s probable cause inquiry were set forth in Special Agent Rankin’s affidavit: (i) that journals had been found among Defendant’s possessions upon his return from overseas travel, in which he graphically detailed sexual encounters with numerous females, including young girls between the ages of 8 and 15; (ii) that Defendant also was found in possession of several photographs (some nude) of his sexual partners, with log numbers corresponding to entries in his journals; (iii) that, upon being interviewed by customs agents, Defendant admitted “that he takes numerous photographs of females while abroad, but indicated that he does not bring back photos of young girls with him for fear of getting in trouble with U.S. Customs,” (Defendant’s Motion, Ex. B, Search Warrant Aff. at P 6); and (iv) that Defendant further acknowledged that he had a computer at his residence, that he had used this computer to book his latest overseas travel, and that he had an Internet service provider that he had used to view nude images online and to establish an e-mail account. Thus, as stated by the Government, “the magistrate had before him information detailing a computer-savvy, photograph-taking individual, who in writing, detailed his sexual exploits with children.” (Government’s Response Br. at 11.)
Although, as Defendant points out, there is no indication that the photographs in his possession were digital, such that they (or others like them, depicting underage girls) could readily be transmitted to his home computer, this is offset by Special Agent Rankin’s description in his affidavit, based on his training and experience, of behaviors and activities common to child pornographers. In particular, Special Agent Rankin explained that “[c]omputers and computer technology have revolutionized the way in which” such activities are carried out, with child pornographers now able to “transfer photographs from a camera onto a computer-readable format with a device known as a scanner,” making computers “an ideal repository for child pornography.” (Defendant’s Motion, Ex. B, Search Warrant Aff. at PP 13-16.) Special Agent Rankin further stated that “[b]ased on my knowledge and experience, persons involved in foreign travel for sex with minors document and maintain evidence of these encounters in the form of photographs, video recordings, diaries, etc. as prized possessions or trophies,” and he noted that Defendant “possessed notebooks explicitly detailing sex acts with young minor children with log numbers such as those used for digital photos kept on computers as files, indicating the picture files may be maintained on a computer hard drive or software or otherwise available via computer.” (Id. at P 9.) Finally, the agent characterized as “deceptive” Defendant’s statement to customs agents that “he does not bring back photos of young girls with him for fear of getting in trouble with U.S. Customs,” noting that Defendant “would not indicate if pictures of minors were sent to the United States by other means,” and that “[i]t has been a technique of previous violators to send prohibited pictures of minors from foreign countries via electronic means to the United States rather than have them in their possession while clearing U.S. Customs.” (Id. at P 6.) Under these circumstances, the magistrate had a substantial basis for finding probable cause to search Defendant’s residence for evidence of child pornography offenses.
Officers were not justified in entering defendants’ backyard and then house for shooting off fireworks. When officers arrived, nothing was happening, but people were standing around and one ducked behind a tree. Still, there was no emergency justification for entering into either. Commonwealth v. Kirschner, 67 Mass. App. Ct. 836, 859 N.E.2d 433 (December 20, 2006).
