Opinion ID: 557342
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Arrest at Berkowitz's Home.

Text: 39 The district judge denied the suppression motion without holding an evidentiary hearing because he found that Berkowitz had failed to identify any factual dispute relevant to the disposition of the motion. But there was, as we have seen, a factual dispute concerning Berkowitz's arrest. The government claimed (supported by an affidavit by Shearer) that the IRS agents asserted their authority to arrest before entering Berkowitz's home, and that Berkowitz did not resist their authority; only after this did the agents enter the home to complete the arrest. On the other hand, Berkowitz claimed (supported by his own affidavit) that Shearer and the other IRS agents entered his home before informing him he was under arrest. 40 Despite this factual conflict, the district court was obliged to hold a hearing only if the difference in facts is material, that is, only if the disputed fact makes a difference in the outcome. See United States v. Rollins, 862 F.2d 1282, 1291 (7th Cir.1988); Nechy v. United States, 665 F.2d 775, 776 (7th Cir.1981); see also United States v. Sophie, 900 F.2d 1064, 1071-72 (7th Cir.1990). Whether the factual conflict here is material depends on whether the arrest's legality differs under the different versions of facts. If the arrest was legal under either version of the facts, we must affirm the district court; if the arrest was illegal under either version of the facts, we must reverse. Only if the arrest was legal under the government's facts but illegal under Berkowitz's must we remand for an evidentiary hearing. 41 Generally, police may not enter a person's home to arrest that person without an arrest warrant, unless exigent circumstances exist. Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); see also Minnesota v. Olson, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 1687, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990); Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 80 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984). The Fourth Amendment protects a person's reasonable expectation of privacy in a variety of settings, but the chief evil against which the amendment is directed is the physical entry of the home. See Payton, 445 U.S. at 585, 589, 100 S.Ct. at 1379, 1381. In [no setting] is the zone of privacy more clearly defined than when bounded by the unambiguous physical dimensions of an individual's home.... Id. at 589, 100 S.Ct. at 1381. Thus, the Court held in Payton, the Fourth Amendment draws a firm line at the entrance to the house. Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant. Id. at 590, 100 S.Ct. at 1382. 42 A few years before deciding Payton, however, the Supreme Court had held in United States v. Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 96 S.Ct. 2406, 49 L.Ed.2d 300 (1976), that police could arrest without a warrant a person standing in the open doorway to her home because the open doorway was a public place. In Santana, police saw Mom Santana standing in the open doorway to her home shortly after a heroin transaction they had probable cause to believe she participated in. The police pulled their van up near her home, exited the van, identified themselves, and approached Santana to arrest her. Santana fled into her home; the police followed and arrested her. Id. at 40-41, 96 S.Ct. at 2408-09. 43 The Supreme Court upheld Santana's arrest. First, the Court held Santana had no reasonable expectation of privacy standing in her open doorway: She was not merely visible to the public but was as exposed to public view, speech, hearing, and touch as if she had been standing completely outside her house. Id. at 42, 96 S.Ct. at 2409. Thus, the police could arrest Santana in her doorway under the Court's decision in United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 96 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976), that police with probable cause to arrest may arrest a person in a public place without a warrant. 44 The police, however, were not actually able to complete Santana's arrest in her doorway; they had to enter her home to bring her under their control. The Court upheld the arrest in the home, not because the home was a public place, but because Santana could not thwart an arrest begun in a public place (her open doorway) by retreating into her house. Id. 427 U.S. at 42-43, 96 S.Ct. at 2409-10. The entry into Santana's home was justified by an exigent circumstance: the police's hot pursuit of a fleeing felon. See id. 45 If Berkowitz's arrest occurred as the government says it did, the arrest was legal. Courts have generally upheld arrests such as that described by Shearer in this case, where the police go to a person's home without a warrant, knock on the door, announce from outside the home the person is under arrest when he opens the door to answer, and the person acquiesces to the arrest. See, e.g., McKinney v. George, 726 F.2d 1183, 1188 (7th Cir.1984); United States v. Carrion, 809 F.2d 1120, 1128 (5th Cir.1987); United States v. Whitten, 706 F.2d 1000, 1015 (9th Cir.1983); United States v. Botero, 589 F.2d 430 (9th Cir.1978); see generally 2 Wayne R. La Fave, Search and Seizure Sec. 6.1(e), at 589-61 (2d ed. 1987). While most of these cases have justified their holdings as applications of Santana, the arrests in these cases, and the arrest here as Shearer presents it, are consistent with Payton. It is true that Berkowitz was still standing inside his home when Shearer told him he was under arrest. But Payton prohibits only a warrantless entry into the home, not a policeman's use of his voice to convey a message of arrest from outside the home. See La Fave, supra, Sec. 6.1(e) at 590. Moreover, there is nothing in Payton that prohibits a person from surrendering to police at his doorway. Id. The agents in this case (even as Shearer tells it) did enter Berkowitz's house (remaining immediately adjacent to his doorway) after Shearer told Berkowitz he was under arrest. But from Shearer's affidavit, it appears Berkowitz submitted to the agents' authority to arrest him before they entered. For reasons we will explain shortly, we do not think the agents' entry (if the facts are as Shearer states) violated any reasonable privacy expectation of Berkowitz's, and therefore did not violate Payton. 46 As Berkowitz presents the arrest, however, Shearer and the other IRS agents entered his home before announcing he was under arrest. One might argue that this should not make a difference; Berkowitz was standing at or near his doorway, and Santana says the doorway is a public place. Moreover, one might argue that a search's legality should not turn on such subtle distinctions as whether the police announce an arrest before entering a home, or wait until after entry to announce the arrest (so long as the police stay near the doorway). We find these arguments unpersuasive for several reasons. 47 Payton holds the Fourth Amendment draws a clear line at the entrance of a person's house: Absent exigent circumstances, that threshold may not reasonably be crossed without a warrant. 445 U.S. at 590, 100 S.Ct. at 1382. Entering a person's home without a warrant to arrest him, where no exigent circumstances exist, violates this clear command. The government has not cited any knock and arrest cases upholding arrests where the police entered the arrestee's home before telling the person he was under arrest. The Fourth Circuit has recently held that a warrantless nonconsenual entry into a hotel room to arrest a subject who answered a knock at his door and was standing near the door when the police entered violates Payton. United States v. McCraw, 920 F.2d 224, 228-30 (4th Cir.1990). A case from this circuit also indicates that such an arrest would be illegal. In United States v. Diaz, 814 F.2d 454 (7th Cir.1987), an undercover officer was in Diaz's hotel room testing cocaine he was supposed to buy from Diaz. The officer told Diaz the cocaine was acceptable, and left the room purportedly to call his money man. After leaving the room, the officer gave a signal to other officers stationed near the room. The first officer then went back to the room, and knocked on the door. When Diaz answered, the other officers entered the room and arrested him. See id. at 456. This court upheld the search on the basis of Diaz's original consent to the first officer to be in the hotel room. But although Diaz was at the doorway to his hotel room when the other officers entered and arrested, we held there were no exigent circumstances to justify the entry, thus indicating that absent Diaz's consent to the first officer the warrantless entry to arrest Diaz would have violated the Fourth Amendment as interpreted in Payton. See id. at 458-59. 48 That warrantless entry before arrest is not legal (and, conversely, that a slight entry after the defendant has submitted to the police is legal) can be seen from analyzing the privacy interests involved in the situation. The Fourth Amendment protects people's legitimate expectations of privacy. A person's subjective privacy expectation in any situation is legitimate, and therefore worthy of Fourth Amendment protection, if it is one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. Minnesota v. Olson, 110 S.Ct. at 1687 (citation omitted). 49 As the Court noted in Payton, there is no place where a person's expectation of privacy is greater than in his own home. See Payton, 445 U.S. at 589, 100 S.Ct. at 1381. A person does not abandon this privacy interest in his home by opening his door from within to answer a knock. Answering a knock at the door is not an invitation to come in the house. We think society would recognize a person's right to choose to close his door on and exclude people he does not want within his home. This right to exclude is one of the most--if not the most--important components of a person's privacy expectation in his home. 50 When the police assert from outside the home their authority to arrest a person, they have not breached the person's privacy interest in the home. If the person recognizes and submits to that authority, the arrestee, in effect, has forfeited the privacy of his home to a certain extent. At that point, it is not unreasonable for the police to enter the home to the extent necessary to complete the arrest. A person who has submitted to the police's authority and stands waiting for the police to take him away can hardly complain when the police enter his home briefly to complete the arrest. This is why, if Shearer's version of the arrest is true, it would not have violated the Fourth Amendment for Shearer and the other agents to enter Berkowitz's house after announcing the arrest, and remain near his door, to take Berkowitz under their control. 51 It is a different matter, however, for the police to enter a person's home, without his consent, before announcing their authority to arrest. In that case, the arrestee has not forfeited his privacy interest in the home; he has not relinquished his right to close the door on the unwanted visitors. See McCraw, 920 F.2d at 229; see also McKinney v. George, 726 F.2d at 1188 (suggesting that a person answering the police's knock may retreat into his home, and that police may not then enter without a warrant to arrest him); La Fave, supra, Sec. 6.1(e) at 591. Indeed, the police have not even given him a chance to exercise that right. Payton holds that police may not enter a person's home without a warrant to arrest him; to hold it was proper for Shearer and his cohorts to enter Berkowitz's home in this case before announcing his arrest would be to sanction the very conduct that Payton holds the Fourth Amendment forbids. 52 Santana does not require a different result. As far as reasonable privacy expectations go, there is a significant difference between a person who for no reason voluntarily decides to stand in his open doorway, and a person who merely answers a knock on his door. The person who answers the knock and stays within the house is not voluntarily exposing himself to public view, speech, hearing, and touch as if [he is] standing completely outside [his] house. Santana, 427 U.S. at 42, 96 S.Ct. at 2409. Moreover, the entry in Santana was justified by hot pursuit; Santana had just completed a heroin transaction, she voluntarily relinquished her privacy expectation in her home by exposing herself to the public in her open doorway, the police began the arrest while Santana had no reasonable privacy expectation, and there was a real possibility that delaying her arrest would result in her destroying evidence. See id. at 42-43, 96 S.Ct. at 2409-10. In this case, there was no justification for Shearer and the other agents to enter Berkowitz's home to arrest him without a warrant. 53 One might argue that to disallow the minimal entry into the home to arrest in this case could hamstring police. But Payton forbids any non-consensual warrantless entry into the home absent exigent circumstances. Payton did not draw the line one or two feet into the home; it drew the line at the home's entrance. Also, if police go to a person's home to arrest him, and have reason to believe they may have to enter the home to make the arrest, they should obtain a warrant. There was no reason in this case for Shearer and his cohorts not to get a warrant, and plenty of reason to obtain a warrant. What would have happened if Berkowitz had refused to open his door to the police? Or if another member of Berkowitz's family had answered the door, but Berkowitz refused to come to the door? The agents would have had to go back and get a warrant (after having effectively warned Berkowitz that they suspected him of stealing documents, something that would have created a real danger that Berkowitz would destroy evidence or try to flee). Obtaining a warrant in the first place would have prevented these potential problems, to say nothing of the time it would have saved at trial and on appeal litigating the legality of Berkowitz's arrest. 54 Because there is a factual dispute in this case, and because resolving that dispute is necessary to determine whether Berkowitz's arrest was legal, the district judge should have held an evidentiary hearing. Therefore, we must reverse and remand so that the judge may hold that hearing. 55