Opinion ID: 852646
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Viewing of Tapes Supplied by Melissa

Text: David claims that he had a protected privacy interest in the content of the sixteen tapes that Melissa delivered to the police, that the screening of the tapes constituted a government search, and that none of the exceptions to the warrant requirement are applicable. David cites the Supreme Court's decisions in Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. 649, 100 S.Ct. 2395, 65 L.Ed.2d 410 (1980) and United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984) which make clear that the Fourth Amendment is violated by a government inspection that exceeds the scope of a prior search by a private individual who discovers evidence. In Walter, a securely sealed package shipped to a fictitious addressee was mistakenly delivered to another party whose employees opened the package and found individual 8mm film boxes covered with suggestive drawings and explicit descriptions of the films. 477 U.S. at 651-52, 106 S.Ct. 2734. An employee opened one or two of the boxes and unsuccessfully attempted to view portions of the film by holding it up to light. Id. at 652, 106 S.Ct. 2734. The films were subsequently viewed by FBI agents on a projector, leading to the indictment of a husband and wife on federal obscenity charges. Id. A plurality of the Court held that the agents' unauthorized screening of the films was an unlawful search. Id. at 654, 660, 106 S.Ct. 2734. Justice Stevens, joined by Justice Stewart, held that the private party's actions had only partially frustrated the sender's expectation of privacy, that the FBI's unauthorized screening of the films constituted an additional search that went beyond the scope of the private search, and that the Fourth Amendment had been violated by the warrantless search in the absence of exigent circumstances or prior consent. Id. at 657-59, 106 S.Ct. 2734. In Jacobsen, a Federal Express employee opened a damaged package and found several plastic bags the innermost containing white powder inside a closed 10-inch tube wrapped in several pieces of crumpled newspaper. 466 U.S. at 111, 104 S.Ct. 1652. A federal drug agent was summoned, but before his arrival the bags had been put back into the tube and the tube and newspapers back into the box. Apparently, when the agent examined the box, the powder was not visible until he removed the tube from the box. Id. After the agent reopened the package, he subjected a small quantity of the white powder to a field test that identified it as cocaine. Id. at 111-12, 104 S.Ct. 1652. The removal of the plastic bags from the tube and the agent's visual inspection of their contents did not exceed the scope of the earlier private search and enabled the agent to learn nothing that the Federal Express employee had not previously learned. The Court held that the government therefore infringed no legitimate expectation of privacy, and the inspection did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 120, 104 S.Ct. 1652. The Court further held that the chemical test, which merely established that the already revealed white substance was cocaine, did not compromise any legitimate privacy interest. Id. at 123, 104 S.Ct. 1652. David argues that the Walter-Jacobsen line of authority required the officers to obtain a search warrant before playing the tapes Melissa had not already viewed. Specifically, he contends that Melissa viewed only two or three videotapes in the basement of the couple's home and therefore the officers' viewing of other tapes at the station exceeded the scope of Melissa's private search. Warrantless searches based on lawful consent are not unreasonable. Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 179, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 111 L.Ed.2d 148 (1990); Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 222, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). The private parties in Walter and Jacobsen recipients of misdirected packages and a common carrier had no authority to consent to the searches undertaken by government officials. Therefore, the police could go as far, but no further than those private parties had gone. Walter and Jacobsen cast no doubt upon the proposition that police, without first securing a warrant, may examine materials received from a private party well beyond any examination the private party may have undertaken when the private party has lawfully consented to the examination. See 1 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 1.8(b), p. 236 (3d ed.1995). Applying this principle here, we conclude that Walter and Jacobsen are unavailing. In those cases police conducted a search of personal property under circumstances where no consent was applicable. In Walter, the sender had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the package would remain hidden from view from all but the intended recipient. The employees of the party who received the misdirected package in error were not the intended recipient, and therefore had no actual or apparent authority over the package. In Jacobsen, the sender likewise had a recognized privacy interest in the package and had entrusted it to a common carrier for the limited purpose of shipping the package to its intended recipient. Although the common carrier had authority over the package for the limited purpose of shipping it, the common carrier did not have access to the contents of the package. Because neither consent nor any other exception to the warrant requirement was applicable, the Court in Walter and Jacobsen determined that police examination of property previously examined by the private parties was limited to the scope of the private examination. By contrast, in the present case, an exception to the warrant requirementconsentis applicable. David had a cognizable privacy interest in the tapes because they were his personal effects contained in his home, where expectations of privacy are greatest. However, unlike the third parties in Walter and Jacobsen, Melissa had actual authority over the tapes: she shared the house with David and had full access to all rooms in the house, including the areas where the tapes were kept. It is well established that a third party may consent to a search of another's premises or property if actual authority exists. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. at 179, 110 S.Ct. 2793; United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 171, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974). Actual authority does not turn solely on whatever property interest the third party may have in the property. It can arise from mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes. Matlock, 415 U.S. at 171, 94 S.Ct. 988. This is explained on the ground that the consenting party could permit the search in his own right and also that the defendant assumed the risk that a co-occupant might permit a search. Id. See also 1 LaFave, supra at § 1.8(b), p. 237 (when one subjects her property to the joint or exclusive control of another, she has thereby assumed the risk that the other person will turn that property over to the police and allow the police to examine it further.). [2] Accordingly, by living with Melissa and taking no steps to deny Melissa access to the tapes, David assumed the risk that Melissa would take the tapes to the police station.