Opinion ID: 413377
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Illegal Search and Arrest

Text: 25 The question whether appellant had a sufficiently reasonable expectation of privacy in the 600 Keefer Place home to challenge the legality of the police search of the premises and his own arrest 13 is more troublesome. On March 26th the police went to 600 Keefer Place with an arrest warrant for Harold Parker. The owner of the home came to the door, asserted that Parker was not there, and refused to allow the police to enter. Nevertheless, the police went in and conducted a room-by-room search; they failed to find Parker but, coming upon appellant, they eventually arrested him. 26 In Steagald v. United States, 451 U.S. 204, 101 S.Ct. 1642, 68 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981), the Supreme Court held that a police officer may not legally search for the subject of an arrest warrant in the home of a third party without first obtaining a search warrant. From the perspective of the owner of the home at Keefer Place, the search was therefore illegal. However, since Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights, the exclusionary rule will protect only those parties whose reasonable expectations of privacy have been violated. See United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 91-92, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 2552-2553, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980); Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 134, 99 S.Ct. 421, 425, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). Therefore, the relevant inquiry is whether Robinson's Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the search--did he have a reasonable expectation of privacy at Keefer Place? Steagald explicitly left open the question whether someone like Robinson could object to an unlawful search of a third party's home on the ground that, as an invited guest, his expectation of privacy against police intrusions should be as great as that of the host himself. 27 We believe that a person can have a legally sufficient interest in a place other than his home to warrant Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable government intrusion. The question remains how to define that interest. The Fifth Circuit has enumerated the factors that ought to be considered in ascertaining the existence of a reasonable expectation of privacy: 28 whether the defendant has a [property or] possessory interest in the thing seized or the place searched, whether he has the right to exclude others from the place, whether he has exhibited a subjective expectation that it would remain free from governmental invasion, whether he took normal precautions to maintain his privacy and whether he was legitimately on the premises.    29 United States v. Haydel, 649 F.2d 1152, 1155 (5th Cir.1981). Recently, the Fifth Circuit applied this test to a situation somewhat analogous to appellant's case. It found that an illegal alien who resides in a house used as a way station for smuggling Mexicans into the United States has no reasonable expectation of privacy, and thus a warrantless search of that house did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights. United States v. Briones-Garza, 680 F.2d 417 (5th Cir.1982). 30 Since appellant has not offered facts to establish a reasonable expectation of privacy under these factors, we have no basis for finding one. We find in the record the fact that Robinson was a guest on those premises (Transcript of Nov. 13th Hearing at 90); the police assertions that the place was chaotic and was being used by seven or eight people (id. at 42-44); and the fact that Robinson was found in a room with another person (id. at 45). This evidence that people freely came and went from the premises certainly cuts against normal expectations of privacy and supports the District Court's findings of fact and law. However, we take this opportunity to note that the record is disturbingly incomplete. Appellant's counsel introduced no evidence on how long Robinson had been in the house, whether he was in fact living there, if he had a key, or the nature of his relation to the owner. Yet, on the basis of the record before us, we must find that appellant had no expectation of privacy in the Keefer Place home and therefore cannot challenge either the search of the premises or his arrest therein.