Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1684736.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 05:09:52+00:00

Document:
During a six-day trial held in May 2012, the jury heard evidence concerning O'Hare and Pia's warrantless entry onto Plaintiffs' property following their receipt of a tip about guns being stashed in an abandoned Nissan Maxima. The officers entered the property at the same time that Harris's twelve-year-old daughter, K., had returned from school and was playing with her three-year-old Saint Bernard dog, Seven, in the backyard of the family's Hartford home. The following facts are taken from the testimony and other evidence presented at trial.
On December 20, 2006, Officers O'Hare and Pia were on duty in the vicinity of Enfield Street. Both were part of the “Northeast Conditions Unit,” which had its officers under orders to “get as many guns off the street as [they] could.” Trial Tr. Vol. I at 140. Then–Officer Gabriel Laureano, who is not a party in this action, was also on duty that day, specifically a few streets over on Garden Street. While patrolling with O'Hare, Laureano saw George Hemingway, a high-ranking member of the West Hell Gang,1 whom Laureano knew to have been recently released on parole. Laureano noticed Hemingway drop “something” that “looked like little plastic sleeves” very discretely, which appeared to Laureano to be heroin or another type of drug. Id. at 64. This substance was later confirmed to be heroin. Id. Laureano and O'Hare placed Hemingway under arrest, handcuffed him, and put him in the back of the patrol car. Later that evening, Laureano filled out an application for an arrest warrant.
Laureano had never used Hemingway as an informant before. Neither had O'Hare or Pia. Armed with Hemingway's tip, Laureano “informed Officers O'Hare and Pia to go check out the information.” Id. at 76; see also Application for Arrest Warrant at 2. Officer Pia could not recall the route that he and O'Hare took to Enfield Street, but they headed over immediately, without a warrant and without informing their sergeant of what they were doing.
A denial of a Rule 59 motion for a new trial is reviewed for abuse of discretion, which occurs when (1) the “decision rests on an error of law ․ or a clearly erroneous factual finding,” or (2) the “decision—though not necessarily the product of a legal error or a clearly erroneous factual finding—cannot be located within the range of permissible decisions.” Zervos v. Verizon New York, Inc., 252 F.3d 163, 169 (2d Cir.2001).
“The core premise underlying the Fourth Amendment is that warrantless searches of a home are presumptively unreasonable.” United States v. Simmons, 661 F.3d 151, 156–57 (2d Cir.2011) (citing Kentucky v. King, ––– U.S. ––––, 131 S.Ct. 1849, 1856 (2011) (“It is a basic principle of Fourth Amendment law ․ that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). As relevant to this case, “police officers need either a warrant or probable cause plus exigent circumstances in order to make a lawful entry into a home.” Kirk v. Louisiana, 536 U.S. 635, 638 (2002).
We first address the question of curtilage, a concept which “originated at common law to extend to the area immediately surrounding a dwelling house the same protection under the law of burglary as was afforded the house itself.” United States v. Dunn, 480 U.S. 294, 300 (1987). Plaintiffs maintain that the question of whether the property constituted curtilage should not have been submitted to the jury, and that instead the district court should have instructed the jury that curtilage was established as a matter of law.
“[P]robable cause is a fluid concept—turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts—not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules. Informants' tips doubtless come in many shapes and sizes from many different types of persons.” Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232 (1983). “Informants' tips, like all other clues and evidence coming to a policeman on the scene may vary greatly in their value and reliability.” Id. (internal quotations omitted).
At this stage of the proceedings, this Court is not permitted to substitute its own view of what weight, if any, to give to Hemingway's tip. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 15051 (2000) (on review of a Rule 50 motion, “the court must draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party, and it may not make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence․ Credibility determinations, the weighing of the evidence, and the drawing of legitimate inferences from the facts are jury functions, not those of a judge” (citations omitted)). There is evidence in the record to support the jury's inference that the officers believed that Hemingway's legal predicament (he had just been arrested with eight bags of heroin close to a school, while on parole for a prior gun conviction) made him more likely to tell the truth about a gun tip, in order to help himself in whatever way he could. Further, the officers testified that, in the past, they had successfully procured illegal guns by securing tips from gang members against other gang members. As such, there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's finding of probable cause to act on Hemingway's tip. We therefore affirm the district court with respect to its denial of Harris's Rule 50 and 59 motions on this basis.
“The essential question in determining whether exigent circumstances justified a warrantless entry is whether law enforcement agents were confronted by an urgent need to render aid or take action.” Loria v. Gorman, 306 F.3d 1271, 1284–85 (2d Cir.2002) (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). “In answering that question, we must be cognizant of the Supreme Court's admonition that ‘exceptions to the warrant requirement are few in number and carefully delineated and that the police bear a heavy burden when attempting to demonstrate an urgent need that might justify warrantless searches or arrests.’ “ Id. (quoting Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 749–50 (1984) (quotation marks and citation omitted)).
United States v. Moreno, 701 F.3d 64, 73 (2d Cir.2012) cert. denied, 133 S.Ct. 2797 (2013) (citing MacDonald, 916 F.2d at 769–70 (omission in original and internal quotation marks omitted)).
“The core question is whether the facts, as they appeared at the moment of entry, would lead a reasonable, experienced officer, to believe that there was an urgent need to render aid or take action.” Simmons, 661 F.3d at 157 (emphasis added) (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted). Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Defendants, and crediting O'Hare and Pia's testimony that they went over to 297 Enfield Street in order to seize two illegal guns stashed in an abandoned car, the record lacks any evidence of an “urgent need to ․ take action.” See id . First, it is undisputed that the property was entirely surrounded by a chain link fence, making much of the property visible from the street. Pia acknowledged that from the front of the property, “you could see [the backyard] from different angles.” Trial Tr. Vol. II at 278. Though he noted that his view of the backyard was obstructed from “our angle,” id., he also conceded that he and O'Hare did not try to drive around the property, or try to see what they could observe from the street, prior to parking and entering the property. Id. at 272. Second, at the moment of the officers' entry, no Nissan Maxima was located on or near the property. There was only one vehicle—Harris's SUV—parked in the driveway, though Defendants paid no attention to the SUV as they entered the premises. Hemingway had stated that the guns would be stashed in the Maxima, and the officers' testimony confirms that they saw no vehicles when they first entered the property. Thus, on this record, and under the standard governing exigent circumstances, a reasonable, experienced officer would not have perceived sufficient evidence giving rise to an urgent need to take action at the moment of the warrantless entry.
“[A]bsent exigent circumstances, a warrantless entry to search for weapons or contraband is unconstitutional even when a felony has been committed and there is probable cause to believe that incriminating evidence will be found within.” Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551, 559 (2004) (internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, mere suspicion or probable cause for belief of the presence of a firearm does not, on its own, create urgency. See Simmons, 661 F.3d at 157–58 (“Of course, absent such an urgency, the gun alone did not justify the officers' search of the bedroom.”) (emphasis added); United States v. Johnson, 22 F.3d 674, 680 (6th Cir.1994) (“The mere presence of firearms does not create exigent circumstances.”).
Second, the court erred in denying Plaintiffs' Rule 50 and 59 motions on this issue. Rule 50(e) controls where, as here, “the verdict loser appeals from the trial court's denial of a motion for judgment as a matter of law,” Weisgram v. Marley Co., 528 U.S. 440, 448 (2000), and provides that “[i]f the appellate court reverses the judgment, it may order a new trial, direct the trial court to determine whether a new trial should be granted, or direct the entry of judgment,” Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(e). “[A]ppellate rulings on post-trial pleas for judgment as a matter of law call for the exercise of informed discretion,” with particular focus on “fairness to the parties.” Weisgram, 528 U.S. at 454 (citing Neely v. Martin K. Eby Constr. Co., 386 U.S. 17 (1967)). When determining the appropriate remedy, “fairness concerns should loom as large when the verdict winner, in the appellate court's judgment, failed to present sufficient evidence.” Id.
Plaintiffs ask that the judgment be reversed and also assert that the verdict and the erroneously given jury instructions invalidated the jury's verdict on the remaining substantive due process and state law claims. We agree with Plaintiffs that the lawfulness of Defendants' warrantless entry is a threshold issue for the remainder of Plaintiffs' asserted claims, which the jury consequently rejected. We therefore remand for a new trial to determine damages for the Fourth Amendment violation as well as any issues raised by Plaintiffs' remaining claims. See Brooks v. Brattleboro Mem'l Hosp ., 958 F.2d 525, 530 (2d Cir.1992) (“It is well established that a partial new trial may not properly be resorted to unless it clearly appears that the issue to be retried is so distinct and separable from the others that a trial of it alone may be had without injustice.”) (internal quotation marks omitted).
“Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, a government official performing discretionary functions is shielded from liability for civil damages if his conduct did not violate clearly established rights or if it would have been objectively reasonable for the official to believe his conduct did not violate plaintiff's rights.” Reuland v. Hynes, 460 F.3d 409, 419 (2d Cir.2006) (internal citations omitted). “Because qualified immunity is an immunity from suit-not merely an immunity from judgment-assertions of qualified immunity should be addressed as early as possible in the judicial process.” Savino v. City of New York, 331 F.3d 63, 71 (2d Cir.2003); see also Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 232 (2009). We think it appropriate here to consider the issue of qualified immunity in the first instance, because the underlying facts material to this determination are not in dispute and “the ultimate legal determination whether a reasonable police officer should have known he acted unlawfully is a question of law better left for the court to decide.” Lennon v. Miller, 66 F.3d 416, 421 (2d Cir.1995) (alterations omitted) (citing Warren v. Dwyer, 906 F.2d 70, 76 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 967 (1990)).
Furthermore, this Court's prior reasoning in Reilly “clearly foreshadow[s] a particular ruling on the issue” of curtilage in the present case. Scott v. Fischer, 616 F.3d 100, 105 (2d Cir.2010). Nearly twenty years ago, we concluded that the curtilage of a criminal defendant's home extended to a cottage located 375 feet from the main residence, because the entire property was enclosed by a single wire fence, some hedgerows, and woods, with no interior fencing separating the cottage from the main residence. United States v. Reilly, 76 F.3d 1271, 1277–79 (2d Cir.1996); see also Dunn, 480 U.S. at 301 n.4 (“[F]encing configurations are important factors in determining curtilage.”). And as in this case, the “actual use” of the land in Reilly included such “private activities” as cooking, swimming, Reilly, 76 F.3d at 1278, and other “intimate activity associated with the sanctity of a ․ home and the privacies of life,” Dunn, 480 U.S. at 300.
As the Supreme Court has explained, “for most homes, the boundaries of the curtilage will be clearly marked; and the conception defining the curtilage—as the area around the home to which the activity of home life extends—is a familiar one easily understood from our daily experience.” Oliver, 466 U.S. at 182 n.12; see also Florida v. Jardines, 133 S.Ct. 1409, 1414–15 (2013) (identifying a front porch as an “easy case” under the “ancient and durable” common law principles of curtilage, which would regard the porch as an “exemplar of an area adjacent to the home and to which the activity of home life extends”). This case provides no exception. Accordingly, it would not have been “objectively reasonable” for the officers to believe their acts did not encroach upon Plaintiffs' protected curtilage. Okin v. Vill. of Cornwall–On–Hudson Police Dep't, 577 F.3d 415, 433 (2d Cir.2009). Based upon the foregoing, we conclude that the officers are not entitled to qualified immunity for their Fourth Amendment intrusion.
6. Cases in our sibling circuits that have found exigent circumstances justifying warrantless entry have similarly involved more than a tip about the presence of a contraband firearm. See, e.g., United States v. Jones, 239 F.3d 716, 720 (5th Cir.2001) (holding police officers' plain view of handgun through closed screen door of apartment, during “knock and talk” initiated after receipt of tip concerning illegal drug activity at apartment, supplied exigent circumstance permitting officers' warrantless entry to secure gun; resident and second occupant were aware of officers' presence and gun was near second occupant), cert. denied, 534 U.S. 861 (2001); United States v. Barrientos, 758 F.2d 1152, 1159 (7th Cir.1985) (holding exigent circumstances justified a no-knock search where the police had reason to believe the defendants were armed and dangerous and that the occupants of the premises had substantial quantities of cocaine which could have been destroyed or disposed of quickly had the police given warning of their presence).
10. Defendants' argument that the officers could have reasonably believed that their conduct was lawful pursuant to the community caretaking doctrine is similarly without merit. While legal ambiguity as to the reach of a doctrine favors qualified immunity, Defendants point us to nothing in the community caretaking jurisprudence that might imply this exception to the warrant requirement would apply to facts at all analogous to the warrantless entry of enclosed residential property at issue here. Cf. Cady v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 442 (1973) (recognizing the community caretaking exception where officer retrieved firearm from vehicle disabled in accident and towed by police to outdoor, unguarded garage); United States v. Markland, 635 F.2d 174 (2d Cir.1980) (applying community caretaking exception where officer searched item found on public highway after accident). Thus, an officer's professed belief that he was permitted, as a community caretaker, to invade Plaintiffs' curtilage without a warrant in search of illegal guns would not be reasonable.

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