NJ: Police entry after landlord’s valid private search was reasonable

Defendant’s landlord entered with permission to repair a leak. He saw drugs on the nightstand, and he called the police and let them in to seize it. The police then got further consent from the defendant. The landlord’s private search was valid, and letting the police in was not unreasonable. State v. Wright, 431 N.J. Super. 558, 71 A.3d 212 (2013):

Given the heightened protection that the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, paragraph 7 of the New Jersey Constitution accord to the privacy of residential premises, we join with several other courts in limiting the extent to which the third-party intervention doctrine may authorize warrantless police searches of private residences. In particular, we hold that, at the very least, the doctrine does not apply in situations where the third party who provides the police with access to a dwelling has entered it unlawfully or otherwise in violation of the resident’s property rights or her reasonable privacy expectations. Apart from that limitation, the doctrine also should not apply if the totality of the intrusion by the private party and law enforcement officials is objectively unreasonable.

Viewed in light of the motion judge’s credibility findings, the record establishes that no such violation of the tenant’s reasonable privacy expectations or property rights occurred here. The landlord entered the apartment at the tenant’s invitation to address ongoing water damage and a potential health and safety hazard. He acted justifiably in letting the police into the apartment after observing illegal drugs within the premises in open view. We also find it significant that the police did not go beyond the physical scope of the landlord’s entry into the premises until they first obtained the tenant’s valid consent to a full search of the premises. The conduct of both the landlord and the police in these particular circumstances was reasonable and did not offend the federal and state constitutions.

Consequently, for the reasons amplified in this opinion, the third-party intervention doctrine justifies the warrantless search that was performed in this case. We therefore affirm the trial court’s suppression ruling and defendant’s ensuing conviction.

No, the police still should have gotten a warrant. The landlord cannot consent to a police entry despite the private search. Hopefully, the NJ Supreme Court will reverse this.