Opinion ID: 200712
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Consent to Search the Stairway

Text: 11 Marshall challenges the district court's determination that Geis had the authority to consent to Officer Hutchins's search of the stairway leading to the rooms he and Jones rented. He argues that Geis lacked authority to give Hutchins permission to enter the stairwell and, as a consequence, the videotapes obtained from the search should be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree. See generally Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). 12 In ruling on the motion to suppress, the district court found that the stairway and landing were common areas of the home and concluded that any one of its residents, Geis included, could have consented to a search of those areas. See United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 170, 94 S.Ct. 988, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974) ([C]onsent of one who possesses common authority over the premises or effects is valid against the absent, non-consenting person with whom that authority is shared.); United States v. Hyson, 721 F.2d 856, 859 n. 7 (1st Cir.1983) (holding that consent based on common authority rests [] on mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes). In support of its ruling, the district court cited the following: (1) Geis told Officer Hutchins that she rented the two upstairs bedrooms to Kathleen Jones and John Marshall; (2) Geis did not specifically tell Officer Hutchins that she considered the stairway to be her tenants' space; (3) Geis never completely removed her personal property from the rented rooms; and (4) Geis had gone upstairs on occasions to get something she needed. 13 Marshall nevertheless argues that the district court erred in finding the stairwell to be a common area, given Geis's testimony that she considered the hallway up to the second floor to be her tenants' personal space. The district court considered this testimony, but credited the testimony of the officers over the testimony of Geis. Marshall fails to address the district court's credibility findings and, therefore, they should not be disturbed. See Nee, 261 F.3d at 84 (holding that credibility findings should not be disturbed unless after reviewing all of the evidence, [the court] [has] a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed). 14 Even if Geis did not have actual authority to authorize the search, the evidence need not be suppressed because Officer Hutchins had a reasonable basis for believing that Geis had common authority over the stairway. In Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 111 L.Ed.2d 148 (1990), the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment is not violated when an officer enters without a warrant because he reasonably, though erroneously, believed that the person who consented to his entry is authorized to do so. Id. at 186, 110 S.Ct. 2793. An officer's reliance on a person's apparent authority must be judged against an objective standard: whether a person of reasonable caution with the facts available to him or her would believe the consenting party had authority over the premises. Id. at 186, 110 S.Ct. 2793. 15 At the time of the search, Geis told Officer Hutchins that she rented the two upstairs bedrooms to Marshall and Jones. She did not inform him that she considered the stairway and landing part of Marshall's rented space. When Geis asked Officer Hutchins to search the upstairs bedrooms, he told her that he could not conduct a search without a warrant because Marshall and Jones had an expectation of privacy; nevertheless, Geis then asked him to search the stairwell. Because Officer Hutchins had just explained the limitation on his ability to conduct a search, he could reasonably assume that Geis would not have thereafter asked him to search Marshall's private space. Thus, Geis's request for him to walk up the staircase, under these circumstances, would have given a reasonable person the impression that she had common authority over this area. 16 Finally, although Officer Hutchins did not act reasonably in stepping inside the open door to the bedroom, his brief entry into the room was insignificant. As the district court noted, Officer Hutchins already had probable cause to search based on Geis's statements and what he observed from outside the door. Moreover, the information obtained from his search was never conveyed to Jones and did not play a role in obtaining her later consent to search the rooms. See United States v. Maldonado-Espinosa, 968 F.2d 101, 103-04 (1st Cir.1992).