Case Title: State v. Meyer

Citation: 167 Vt. 608, 708 A.2d 1343

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1998-02-20T00:00:00Z

Document:
State v. Meyer  (97-264); 167 Vt. 608; 708 A.2d 1343 

[Filed 20-Feb-1998]

                                 ENTRY ORDER

                       SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 97-264

                             DECEMBER TERM, 1997

State of Vermont                }     APPEALED FROM:
                                }
                                }
     v.                         }     District Court of Vermont,
                                }     Unit No. 3, Orange Circuit
Samuel Meyer                    }
                                }     DOCKET NO. 116-3-96 Oecr

       In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       Defendant Samuel Meyer appeals from an Orange District Court order
  denying his motion to suppress photographs, negatives and videotapes seized
  from his home pursuant to a valid search warrant.  He contends that, under
  the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and
  Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution, the police are
  prohibited from conducting a search of a home pursuant to a valid search
  warrant if the homeowner is not present, absent exigent circumstances.  We
  disagree and affirm.

       On February 12, 1996, defendant's home was searched pursuant to a
  search warrant. Initially, the officers found the residence unoccupied and
  waited two and one-half hours for defendant to return.  Finally, they
  knocked and announced that they had a search warrant. When no one answered,
  two officers gained entry by climbing through a dog entrance.  These
  officers then unlocked the front door and let in the remaining officers. 
  Defendant's home suffered no damage during the police entry.  Defendant
  arrived home while the search was in progress.  The officers found items
  specified in the warrant, videotapes and photographs showing certain
  juveniles posing nude and in sexually suggestive positions.  Based on the
  discovery of this evidence, defendant was arrested and charged with two
  counts of promoting a performance including the lewd exhibition of the
  genitals of a child in violation of 13 V.S.A. § 2822(a).

       Defendant seeks to suppress the evidence seized, claiming that the
  search of the home while no one is present and without exigent
  circumstances is per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.  Defendant
  cites no authority for this position, and we find none.  Indeed, the
  federal courts of appeal have consistently held that police may search a
  dwelling even when the occupant is not present and even without exigent
  circumstances.  See United States v. Chubbuck, 32 F.3d 1458, 1461 (10th
  Cir. 1994) (police search of defendant's apartment pursuant to valid
  warrant was reasonable even though apartment was unoccupied); United States
  v. Gervato, 474 F.2d 40, 44 (3rd Cir. 1973) (Fourth Amendment does not
  prohibit per se searches conducted in the absence of the occupant); Payne
  v. United States, 508 F.2d 1391, 1394 (5th Cir. 1975) (police search of
  unoccupied dwelling was reasonable and a different conclusion would
  "greatly hamper" the legitimate activities of law enforcement officers);
  United States v. Agrusa, 541 F.2d 690, 697-98 (8th Cir. 1976) ("What
  authority there is holds that unannounced and forcible entries into vacant
  premises, even homes, in order to conduct a search, are constitutional in
  the absence of exigent circumstances, provided that the search and seizure
  is pursuant to a warrant and reasonable under the circumstances"); see
  generally 1 W. Lafave & J. Israel, Criminal Procedure § 3.4(g), at 230
  (1984) ("No special showing is needed

 

  to execute a search warrant for premises in the absence of the occupant, as
  such execution is not significantly different from that which would
  otherwise occur.").

       Defendant suggests that whatever was the prior law, his position now
  follows from Arkansas v. Wilson,