Opinion ID: 1479520
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Warrantless Entry

Text: The defendant's motion before the judge of the District Court sought dismissal of both charges against him or, in the alternative, suppression of all evidence of the happenings inside the house because of Officer Gagnon's alleged illegal entry into his home. The District Court judge denied the motion, ruling that the police entry was not illegal and that, even if it were, evidence of crimes committed after an illegal entry would not be suppressable as such. We agree with this ruling insofar as it denied the motion to suppress, but disagree with the judge's conclusion that the policeman's forceful entry into the Boilard residence was legal. Both the constitutions of Maine and of the United States prohibit unreasonable searches and seizures in the homes of our people. This treasured freedom is protected by the warrant requirements of section 5 of article I of the Maine Constitution and of the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution. [1] Warrantless searches are per se unreasonable, subject to a few specifically established, carefully drawn and much guarded exceptions. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 357, 88 S.Ct. 507, 514, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967); State v. Johnson, 413 A.2d 931, 933 (Me. 1980). Warrantless entries into private homes for purposes of search, or arrest for that matter, are equally unreasonable, except in those circumstances wherein an exception to the warrant requirements has been carefully drawn and guarded as previously stated. See Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 576, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 1374-75, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), where the United States Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment ... prohibits the police from making a warrantless and nonconsensual entry into a suspect's home in order to make a routine felony arrest. As stated in State v. Smith, 379 A.2d 722, 725-26 (Me.1977), it was sound police practice presenting no constitutional infirmity for the police to make an immediate warrantless entry and search in a situation of exigency as existed in that case. The principle of law ensuring privacy in one's home and giving to every man the right to repel intruders by force, if necessary, and which is usually expressed in the familiar maxim, Every man's house is his castle, still remains in full force and vigor and is recognized in both our State and Federal Constitutions. What was true in 1925, as this Court then pronounced, is still true in this age. See Marshall v. Wheeler, 124 Me. 324, 326, 128 A. 692, 693 (1925). Recognized exceptions to the warrant requirements of the constitutions exist in situations where the entry and subsequent search by law enforcement officers are incidental to hot pursuit of a fleeing felon. See Warden v. Hayden, 387 U.S. 294, 87 S.Ct. 1642, 18 L.Ed.2d 782 (1967). Also, our Court has expressly noted that a search conducted by police pursuant to a valid consent, upon unopposed entry into the home, is constitutionally permissible and is an established exception to the warrant requirement of the federal constitution. State v. Koucoules, 343 A.2d 860, 866 (Me.1974) citing Vale v. Louisiana, 399 U.S. 30, 35, 90 S.Ct. 1969, 1972, 26 L.Ed.2d 409 (1970). In a similar situation, we said in State v. McLain, 367 A.2d 213, 216 (Me. 1976) that the entry into a person's home without a warrant was unreasonable in itself unless justified under one of a few exceptions to the requirement of a warrant issued by a disinterested magistrate on a showing of probable cause; an established exception to the warrant requirement is a search conducted pursuant to a valid consent. Our Court has recognized an additional exception to the warrant requirements in situations where exigent circumstances exist. See State v. Dunlap, 395 A.2d 821, 824 (Me.1978). But, before reaching the issue of the existence vel non of exigent circumstances underlying the dispensation with the warrant requirement in police intrusions upon private property, such as in this case the undertaking by a law enforcement officer of forceful entry into a private dwelling-house, the officer must have knowledge of facts supporting a proper determination of probable cause. Indeed, it is the coexistence of probable cause and exigent circumstances that will justify the warrantless entry of a home and a subsequent search or arrest therein. See State v. Barclay, 398 A.2d 794, 796-97 (Me.1979); State v. Libby, 453 A.2d 481, 484 (Me.1982). The issue of whether exigent circumstances exist excusing the procurement of a search warrant becomes relevant only if there has been a threshold finding that there was probable cause for the entry and search. State v. Sweatt, 427 A.2d 940, 950 (Me.1981). Hence, in the instant case, the burden is on the State to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Officer Gagnon's forceful entry into the Boilard home in search of the children for investigative purposes was made with probable cause that a crime had been committed and that the circumstances were such that it was impracticable for the officer to postpone his entry and search until he obtained a warrant to do so. The burden is on the State to prove the underlying facts bringing the case within one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement. State v. Philbrick, 436 A.2d 844, 854 (Me. 1981); State v. Dunlap, 395 A.2d 821, 824 (Me.1978); State v. Heald, 314 A.2d 820, 829 (Me.1973). The defendant's challenge of the District Court's ruling that the police entry into the Boilard home was legal does not constitute an attack on the judge's findings of fact, since the facts surrounding the entry are undisputed in any material aspect thereof, but it only brings up for review Boilard's claim that the judge's legal conclusions are in error for being based on misinterpretation of the applicable law. Under such circumstances, the clearly erroneous standard is inapplicable. See State v. Johnson, 413 A.2d 931, 933 (Me.1980).