Opinion ID: 516467
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: search of kepka's garbage

Text: 13 Both Kepka and Johnson assert that the trial court erred by failing to suppress the evidence seized from the trash cans on Kepka's curb without a search warrant. Defendants Kepka, Bekish and Rasmussen filed motions to suppress evidence derived from the warrantless seizure. After two suppression hearings, the lower court denied all motions to suppress. The court found that none of the defendants retained a legitimate privacy expectation in the can's contents because, although the can was technically on Kepka's property, the garbage was in public view and pedestrians had easy access. U.S. v. Kepka, et al., slip op. at 5 (N.D.Iowa Order of July 21, 1987). 14 The Supreme Court recently faced the issue of a warrantless search and seizure of garbage bags left on a curb outside of a defendant's house in California v. Greenwood, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1625, 100 L.Ed.2d 30 (1988). A search in such instances violates the Fourth Amendment only if the defendants manifested a subjective expectation of privacy in their garbage that society accepts as objectively reasonable. Id. --- U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 1628, 100 L.Ed.2d at 36 (citations omitted). Speaking particularly of garbage bags, the Court stated the following: 15 It may well be that respondents did not expect that the contents of their garbage bags would become known to the police or other members of the public. An expectation of privacy does not give rise to Fourth Amendment protection, however, unless society is prepared to accept that expectation as objectively reasonable. 16 Id. 17 The Court then concluded in Greenwood that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage bags left, in an area accessible to the public, at the curb for collection. Id. --- U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 1629, 100 L.Ed.2d at 37. 18 Greenwood governs the instant case. While the garbage in Greenwood was merely placed in a bag and the trash at Kepka's property was kept in a garbage can, this difference does not give Kepka an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy. While a trash can is less accessible to animals than a garbage bag, a trash can placed at the curb is still readily accessible to children, scavengers, snoops and other members of the public. See Greenwood, --- U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 1628-29, 100 L.Ed.2d at 36-37. Moreover, Kepka places his trash in the can for the express purpose of conveying it to a third party, the trash collector, who might himself have sorted through respondents' trash or permitted others, such as the police, to do so. Id. --- U.S. at ----, 108 S.Ct. at 1629, 100 L.Ed.2d at 37. A person must do more than place trash for collection in a trash can, that the public has access to, to create an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy. Kepka did not take that extra step.