Opinion ID: 1941856
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constructive Refusal

Text: In Griffin, this court recently held that a thirty-second delay between a police announcement and a forced entry into a home at 1:40 a.m. was too short for the police reasonably to conclude that they had been constructively refused admittance. At that time of the night, we noted, many, if not most, people are asleep in bed, semi-dressed, and unlikely to react quickly or rationally to a sudden knock at the door. 618 A.2d at 121-22. In the case before us, the period of delaya mere ten secondswas considerably shorter than in Griffin. Admittedly, the forced entry in this case took place at a somewhat more civilized hour: 8:15 a.m. But it was also on a Saturday morning, a time when the factors we cited in Griffin are still largely applicable. At 8:15 on a Saturday morning many people will still be relatively inactive or otherwise indisposed, or even completely asleep, such that it will probably take them more than ten seconds to respond to a knock at the door. Furthermore, in this case there was no evidence that the police heard or saw anything that would have led them to believe that the occupants were awake. They did not hear the television, nor did they hear any movement. Under these circumstances, we conclude as a matter of law, from these facts, that the police could not have reasonably believed that they had been constructively refused admittance. The cases cited to us by the government, in which courts have upheld forced entries after similarly brief delays, are all distinguishable because they involved some other factor, not evident in this case, contributing to the conclusion that there had been a constructive refusal of admittance. In several of these cases, for instance, the police heard some movement suggesting that the occupant was alert and deliberately not responding. See United States v. Bonner, 277 U.S.App.D.C. 271, 874 F.2d 822 (1989) (police heard retreating footsteps after they had twice announced themselves); United States v. Ruminer, 786 F.2d 381 (10th Cir.1986) (officers at bedroom window had seen figure run out of the room after police announcement); United States v. Allende, 486 F.2d 1351 (9th Cir.1973) (entry only ten seconds after knock not unlawful where officers also heard scampering sounds after knock), cert. denied, 416 U.S. 958, 94 S.Ct. 1973, 40 L.Ed.2d 308 (1974); Jackson v. United States, 354 F.2d 980 (1st Cir.1965) (applying knock-and-announce requirement as matter of common law, ten second delay, though an exceedingly short time under most circumstances, not unlawfully brief where police, before knocking, had heard defendant moving about, followed by silence). In the one remaining case cited by the government, United States v. One Parcel of Real Property, 873 F.2d 7 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 891, 110 S.Ct. 236, 107 L.Ed.2d 187 (1989), a multi-unit dwelling was approached by three police teams, one of which had already been knocking at another entrance for some time before a member of another team entered the building through a side door, knocked at the door to the defendant's apartment, waited five to ten seconds, and then attempted a forced entry. Thus, the actual period of delay between the initial announcement and the forced entry was longer than the five to ten seconds that the second team member waited himself. Moreover, in that case, as in Bonner, the police had probable cause to believe that the occupants possessed cocaine, which is easily disposable. [11]